Group Part
Introduction
The 1990s witnessed an enormous wave of retail internationalization as leading retailers from Europe and the USA went global (Wrigley, 2000 and Coe, 2004) as a result of material and cultural developments (Kalhan and Franz, 2009). Wal-Mart and Tesco are two of them and they are becoming powerful global operators since then. Table 1 shows some key facts of the two companies.
Table 1: Key Facts of Wal-Mart and Tesco
Wal-Mart | Tesco | |
Country of Origin | US | UK |
Year Founded | 1962 | 1919 |
International Coverage (countries) | 16 | 14 |
Number of Employees | 2,000,000 | 472,000 |
Total Revenue 2010 | 405 billion | 62.5 billion |
International Revenue 2010 (percentage of the total) | 100.1 billion (24.7%) | 19.4 billion (31.2%) |
Total Net Profit 2010 | 23.9 billion | 3.4 billion |
International Net Profit 2010 (percentage of the total) | 5.033 billion (21.1%) | 0.749 billion (22.0%) |
Main formats | Discount Centers Sam' clubs Supercenters Neighbourhood markets | Extras Superstores Compact superstores Metro stores Express stores |
Total Stores | 8,416 | 4,811 |
International Stores | 4,112 | 2,328 |
Source: Respective company annual report (Wal-Mart, 2010 and Tesco, 2010) and group's calculations
According to Bartlett and Beamish (2008) MNEs are evolving into transnational organizations with emerging requirement for them to become more flexible while achieving improved global efficiency, and also learning is of greater importance in this process.
A protest in Utah against Wal-Mart
English: Walmart Home Office, the headquarters of ...
walmart beijingThis is particular the case in international retailing for global companies like Wal-Mart and Tesco. This essay, therefore, seeks to evaluate the comparative transnational effectiveness of Tesco and Wal-Mart in pursuing efficiency, flexibility and learning. It begins with the discussion of motivations, means and mentalities of these two firms, and then it evaluates them in achieving the three goals separately. Finally it also explores the collaboration and social corporate responsibility (SCR) elements of these companies for comparison.
Motivations, Means and Mentalities
Regarding motivations, market-seeking was a main motivation...