留学生dissertation：沃尔玛进入南非市场的策略研究

1.1  Introduction
Wal-Mart has been promoting globalization. The economic crisis of 2008 has led to the economic decline of developed countries, and the opportunities of emerging countries have gained new attraction. As a mature retail market, South Africa is regarded as an important target of Wal-Mart's expansion strategy. This paper specifically discusses the potential challenges of entering the South African market, what strategies should be adopted to enter the South African market and how to deal with the various problems faced by entering the South African market.
沃尔玛一直在推行全球化发展。2008年的经济危机导致发达国家经济下滑，新兴国家的机遇有了新的吸引力。南非作为一个拥有成熟的零售行业的市场，被视为沃尔玛扩张战略的一个重要目标。本文具体讨论了进入南非市场的潜在挑战，进入南非市场应该采取什么战略以及如何应对进入南非市场所要面临的各种问题。
 


1.2  Potential challenges in South Africa
According to Bridget (2014), South Africa's infrastructure is of high quality, with skilled labour and abundant natural resources. At the same time, South Africa has integrated into the Southern African Development Community and is likely to become a springboard for Wal-Mart's operations in other parts of Africa (Bridget 2014). But Wal-Mart faces the challenge of obtaining regulatory approval from different government agencies.
Bridget（2014）认为，南非的基础设施质量高，拥有熟练的劳动力和丰富的自然资源。与此同时，南非已融入南部非洲发展共同体，很可能成为沃尔玛在非洲其他地区开展业务的跳板（Bridget 2014）。但沃尔玛面临着从不同政府机构获得监管批准的挑战。
Wal-Mart earns about $408 billion, more than South Africa's GDP. Because of economies of scale, local retailers will find it difficult to compete with Wal-Mart in the local market (Troye 2011). And because Wal-Mart's global purchasing power is strong, this may lead to an increase in imports, which will result in imports replacing the local manufacturing and production of domestic suppliers in South Africa (Henri & Ewert 2015). Increased imports are crowding out local brands, forcing many local businesses to shut down, causing unemployment to rise (Troye 2011). South Africa's unemployment rate has reached 25%, and rising unemployment is bound to generate greater opposition.
According to many countries that Wal-Mart has entered before, Wal-Mart has a strict anti-union policy aimed at prohibiting workers from gaining collective bargaining rights such as wage increases, medical benefits and job security (Jonathan 2015). This not only greatly damages the interests of South African citizens, but also challenges national sovereignty. The merger with Massmart is Wal-Mart's first foray into Africa, so the negative political consequences reported by the press may force South Africa to become more sensitive to domestic issues (Henri & Ewert 2015).
根据沃尔玛以前进入过的许多国家，沃尔玛有严格的反工会政策，旨在禁止工人获得加薪、医疗福利和工作保障等集体谈判权利（Jonathan 2015）。这不仅极大地损害了南非公民的利益，也挑战了国家主权。与Massmart的合并是沃尔玛首次进军非洲，因此媒体报道的负面政治后果可能会迫使南非对国内问题更加敏感（Henri&Ewert 2015）。
At the same time, years of colonial experience have led African political leaders to oppose foreign investment. In Africa, they argue, African countries are deprived of their natural resources to benefit the home countries of foreign investors (Jonathan 2015).
与此同时，多年的殖民经验导致非洲政治领导人反对外国投资。他们认为，在非洲，非洲国家被剥夺了自然资源，从而使外国投资者的母国受益（Jonathan 2015）。



1.3  Strategies for Entering South Africa
According to near-marketing knowledge, when cultures and economies in different markets are similar, similar strategies can be used. The American market is not similar to the South African market in terms of economic level and culture. So Wal-Mart needs to take advantage of the experience of emerging markets that have already been developed, such as Mexico and China.
根据near-marketing knowledge,当不同市场中的文化和经济相似，可以使用相似战略。美国市场在经济水平和文化上都与南非市场不相似。所以要采用沃尔玛已经开拓的新兴市场的经验，如墨西哥和中国。
Joint venture is a common entry mode when enterprises enter emerging markets. In a joint venture, the partners agree to raise funds at the agreed equity ratio (Kotabe, Marshall, Ang, Griffiths, Voola, Roberts, & Helsen 2014). In 1991, Wal-Mart set up a 1:1 joint venture in Mexico. According to the data, Wal-Mart's profit grew by 12%, higher than its parent company's net increase of 3.3% (Kerry 2003). Then Wal-Mart opened a store in Brazil (Kerry 2003) with a 6:4 joint venture based on demographic similarities between Mexico and Brazil. The higher the proportion of equity in joint ventures, the higher the degree of decision-making participation. However, the lack of complete control of multinational companies is the biggest drawback of joint ventures. For example, the Indian government does not allow joint ventures to have majority equity (Kotabe et al. 2014). So Wal-Mart can adjust its equity ratio to ease the restrictions of South African government on foreign companies' participation in retail business. At the same time, Wal-Mart's entry into South Africa has to be approved by the government (Henri & Ewert 2015) because of obstacles from the South African government and some stakeholders. In China, Wal-Mart is subject to bureaucratic restrictions and delayed approval by government agencies. So Wal-Mart can work with South African government agencies or partners with long-term relationships with these agencies.#p#分页标题#e#
合资是企业进入新兴市场时常用的一种进入模式。在合资企业中，合伙人同意按约定的股权比例筹集资金 (Kotabe, Marshall, Ang, Griffiths, Voola, Roberts, & Helsen 2014)。1991年，沃尔玛以1:1的比例在墨西哥设立了合资企业，Walmex。数据显示，沃尔玛利润增长12%，高于母公司净增3.3%的利润率(Kerry 2003)。紧接着，沃尔玛根据墨西哥和巴西的人口统计学上的相似之处，以6:4的合资企业在巴西开设了一家门店(Kerry 2003)。合资企业股权比例越高，决策参与程度越高。然而，跨国公司缺乏完全控制权是合资公司最大的缺点。如印度政府不允许合资企业拥有多数股权(Kotabe et al. 2014)。所以沃尔玛可以适当调整股权比例来减轻南非政府对国外公司参与零售业的限制。同时，由于南非政府和某些利益相关者的阻碍，沃尔玛进入南非必须得到政府的批准(Henri & Ewert 2015)。在中国，沃尔玛受到了官僚主义的限制以及政府机构的延期批准。所以，沃尔玛可以与南非政府机构或与这些机构有长期关系的合作伙伴进行合作。
Through long-term investment and operation, Wal-Mart realized that entering the market should not only focus on the political environment, but also understand customers' shopping habits and culture. So Wal-Mart acquired a well-known retail company in China to help it become the largest food retail network in China. This shows that Wal-Mart's joint venture with Massmart in South Africa is necessary, and Massmart can help them understand the consumption habits and customs of South African consumers.
通过长期的投资和经营，沃尔玛意识到进入市场不仅要注重政治环境影响，还要了解客户的购物习惯与文化。所以，沃尔玛在中国收购了一家中国的知名零售企业，帮助其在中国成为最大的食品零售网络。由此可见，沃尔玛进入南非与Massmart的合资是必要的，Massmart可以帮助其了解南非消费者的消费习惯和风俗。
 
1.4  Difference in Strategies for Entering South Africa
Wal-Mart still adopts the joint venture approach to enter South Africa, but its strategy is relatively different. According to Transaction-cost analysis (TCA), when market pressure is low, the low control mode is established (Kotabe et al. 2014). Because of the large scale economy, it will be difficult for local retailers to compete with Wal-Mart in the local market (Troye 2011). But Massmart is a retail giant in Africa, and Wal-Mart's market competition is increasing. Moreover, when transaction-specific assets such as brand equity and know-how become valuable, organizations need to adopt a highly controlled entry model (Kotabe et al. 2014). Because of the opposition alliance in South Africa, Wal-Mart should first enter the market with a 1:1 joint venture, obtain public approval through various measures, and then acquire more shares of Massmart in order to gain greater operational control and more core technology and resources of Massmart.#p#分页标题#e#
沃尔玛进入南非仍采用合资企业的方法，但战略相对来说存在一些不同。根据Transaction-cost analysis (TCA)，在市场压力小时，低控制模式成立(Kotabe et al. 2014)。由于规模经济大，当地零售商将很难在当地市场与沃尔玛竞争(Troye 2011)。但Massmart属于非洲地区的零售业巨头，沃尔玛的市场竞争压力增加。并且，当transaction-specific assets的交易资产，如品牌资产和专有技术变得有价值时，组织需要采取高控制的进入模式(Kotabe et al. 2014)。由于南非存在反对联盟，沃尔玛应该先以1:1合资企业进入市场，通过各种措施获得民众认可后，再收购Massmart更多的股份，以获得更大的运营控制权和得到Massmart的更多核心技术与资源。
 
1.5  Advantages and Disadvantages of JV between Wal-Mart and Massmart
South African retail giant Massmart has 330 stores and more than 120 million consumers. So Wal-Mart sees Massmart as a tool for expanding consumer demand and purchasing power in Africa in the future. Wal-Mart wants to expand its scale by saving customer funds, so Massmart is an ideal strategic partner for the region (Henri & Ewert 2015).
南非零售巨头Massmart拥有330家门店和超过1.2亿的消费者。所以沃尔玛将Massmart视为未来扩展非洲消费者需求和购买力的工具.沃尔玛希望通过节省客户资金来扩大规模， 所以Massmart是该地区的理想战略合作伙伴(Henri & Ewert 2015)。
Massmart is very good at working in different modes (Walmart Lays Foundation in Sub-Saharan Africa 2013). Wal-Mart has applied what it learned from Massmart to the whole region. So, with Wal-Mart operating in Africa. Wal-Mart has acquired outstanding assets, including stores and brands, which provide a great deal of flexibility to enter the market in a variety of ways (Walmart Lays Foundation in Sub-Saharan Africa 2013). Wal-Mart's success in South Africa has provided Wal-Mart with a convincing development opportunity and has become a springboard for Wal-Mart's expansion in other African countries (Evan 2010).
Massmart非常擅长在不同的模式下工作(Walmart Lays Foundation in Sub-Saharan Africa 2013)。沃尔玛已经将从Massmart学到的知识应用到整个地区。因此，随着沃尔玛在非洲的运营。沃尔玛获得了包括商店和品牌在内的优秀资产，这些产品提供了大量的灵活性，可以以多种不同的方式进入市场(Walmart Lays Foundation in Sub-Saharan Africa 2013)。沃尔玛在南非的成功为沃尔玛提供了一个令人信服的发展机会，并成为了沃尔玛在其他非洲国家扩张的跳板(Evan 2010)。
Wal-Mart only acquired 51% of Massmart, so it did not gain full control of its joint venture with Massmart. At the same time, Wal-Mart could not increase its control by holding a majority stake in the company, which was strongly opposed by the government and trade unions. This shows that Wal-Mart can easily lose its voice in the early stage of the venture, which may lead to conflicts on issues such as resource allocation and ownership of key assets (Kotabe et al. 2014).#p#分页标题#e#
沃尔玛仅收购了Massmart 51%的股份，所以其在与Massmart建立合资企业是没有获得完全控制权的。同时，在政府和工会的强烈反对下，沃尔玛并不能通过持有多数股权来增加控制权。由此可见，在合资的初期，沃尔玛很容易失去话语权，可能导致在资源分配和关键资产所有权等问题上产生冲突(Kotabe et al. 2014)。
 
1.6  Measures to mitigate opposition alliances
Although Wal-Mart Masmart eventually won the acquisition approval of the South African Court, Wal-Mart still needs to take some necessary measures to ease the relationship between the company and the opposition alliance (Mark 2010). Despite court rules requiring Wal-Mart to restore 503 laid-off South African workers and set up foundations, Wal-Mart said its immediate goal was to help South Africans save money and find more jobs (Henri & Ewert 2015).
尽管沃尔玛massmart最终赢得了南非法院的收购批准，但沃尔玛还要采取一些必要措施来缓和公司和反对联盟之间的关系(Mark 2010)。除去法院规定的沃尔玛必须恢复503名被解雇的南非工人以及成立基金会，沃尔玛表示，其近期目标是帮助南非人省钱并寻找更多就业机会(Henri & Ewert 2015)。
First, Walmart should localize its purchases. Localized procurement can not only effectively save costs, but also ease the relationship with local government and business. The plan will create hundreds of new jobs in South Africa (Walmart Lays Foundation in Sub-Saharan Africa 2013). It also needs to establish links with smallholder farmers, train and develop thousands of local farmers, and share expertise in logistics and inventory management, which means sharing technology and improving the local supply chain (Henri & Ewert 2015). At the same time, not only do price cuts and promotions occur frequently, Wal-Mart also keeps understanding the needs and consumption habits of South African consumers and promotes the implementation of the glocalization strategy. In fact, when Wal-Mart's business model is culturally integrated with South Africa, the hidden dangers can be eliminated. (Henri & Ewert 2015)
首先，沃尔玛（walmart/massmart）应该进行采购本土化。本土化采购不仅可以有效节约成本，还能缓解与但地政府和商界的关系。这一计划将为南非创造成百上千个新的工作岗位(Walmart Lays Foundation in Sub-Saharan Africa 2013)。并且需要建立与小农的联系，培训和发展数千名当地农民，并分享物流、库存管理的专业知识，这即共享了技术又改善了当地的供应链(Henri & Ewert 2015)。同时，不仅降价促销经常出现，沃尔玛还不断了解南非消费者的需求与消费习惯，推动全球本地化战略的实施。实际上，当沃尔玛的商业模式与南非实现了文化融合，隐患就可以消除。(Henri & Ewert 2015)。
 
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1.7 Conclusion
In general, the article discusses Wal-Mart's strategy of entering South Africa and the problems and solutions in the process of entering South Africa.