Wal-Mart is an American company that is famous throughout the nation and that has its implications in accordance with the specifics of American culture throughout the history. The thing is that Wal-Mart offer a wide variety of goods at affordable prices and is oriented on the mass consumption. If to judge objectively, we can say that Russian and European cultures differ from American culture at various levels, and each of those units has its specific features and characteristics (Mensah & Chen, 2012). One of the most influential countries in the European Union is Germany, and we can take Russia and Germany as opposing cultural clusters to the American culture that became a ‘mother’ to Wal-Mart.
It is crucial to examine the characteristics of the chosen cultures in the context of retailing business. According to the comparison of countries by Geert Hofstede, Russia significantly differs from the United States in terms of every dimension, which are power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation and indulgence. Germany, in turn, also has significant differences with American culture, but those differences have an opposing direction in comparison with Russian culture (The Hofstede Centre).
Such dimensions as power distance or individualism have a significant impact on the operations of such a company as Wal-Mart. American culture is an example of highly individualistic culture, which implies that people care about themselves and about their close people. Russia and Germany, on the contrary, are shifted more towards collectivistic culture, which implies that people should care about the society. In case of such company as Wal-Mart, we can say that this business is popular in American culture but it will not have such a popularity in Russian culture according to those dimensions. The thing is that mass consumption and low power distance (as it is in the hierarchy of Wal-Mart) are not the characteristics of this country, and this type of company requires those aspects. Germany also has a low power distance, and wholesale purchase of goods is one of the culture’s features. This is why at this moment it is hard to judge whether such company as Wal-Mart would have a place for successful existence in this culture, and we have to explore more (The Hofstede Centre).
Furthermore, it is essential to mention that Germany is a representative of a culture that bases its decisions and activities on the long-term orientation, and the same we can say about Russian culture (The Hofstede Centre). The fact that those two cultures are oriented more on the longer-term leads to the fact that in their businesses, they tend to calculate everything for the future and they want to have a base of loyal customers in retail business. Wholesale purchase of goods probably has its own loyal customers in every company, however, it is easy to switch between the stores and make purchases from other suppliers. In such a way, we can imply that those two cultures, Russia and Germany, may have differentiated stores so that they can build some foundation for the future and survive in the conditions of harsh competition.
In such a way, we can track that social and cultural characteristics have an effect on various types of businesses, including such a company as Wal-Mart that is a part of wholesale of goods sector. Hofstede’s dimensions can have other titles and various types of additions, such as sensitivity to time (long-term orientation), or communication type, or emotionalism (Salacuse, 2005). Those factors all have an influence on the operations of a company within the context of a chosen culture. It is hard to identify whether such a company as Wal-Mart would become a successful enterprise in Russian or European cultures, because according to the sociocultural characteristics, it would be hard to place a company into the conditions with completely different beliefs, principles and perceptions of reality.
References
Mensah, Y., & Chen, H. (2012). Global Clustering of Countries by Culture – An Extension of the GLOBE Study. SSRN Electronic Journal SSRN Journal.
Salacuse, J. (2005). THE TOP TEN WAYS THAT CULTURE CAN AFFECT INTERNATIONAL NEGOTIATIONS. Ivey Business Journal. Retrieved January 15, 2016, from http://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/the-top-ten-ways-that-culture-can-affect-international-negotiations/
United States in comparison with Germany. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2016, from http://geert-hofstede.com/united-states.html
United States in comparison with Russia. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2016, from http://geert-hofstede.com/united-states.html
