Discussion Questions (DQ) responses.

Respond to respones listed below according to these guidelines

Substantive Posts (SP) are responses to other student's initial Discussion Questions (DQ) responses. The concept of the SP is to create proactive and encouraging involvement in discussion with classmates. The expectation is that students will draw upon professional experience, interpretation of the assigned readings, and other reference material to enrich the broader body of knowledge for the class. 

Substantive Posts must meet the following criteria: 

-          200-300 word count, excluding citations and references

-          Responses should draw from the assigned readings, outside research, and/or professional experience

-          Utilize in-text citations and references, as appropriate (optional)

FIrst Response Question:

There are five main reasons why companies expand into international markets, " to gain access to new customers, to achieve lower costs and enhance the firm's competitiveness, to further employ its' core competencies, to gain access to resources and capabilities located in foreign markets, and to spread the business risk across a wider market base." (Gamble & Peteraf, 2015). Amazon was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, it is ranked in the top 5 most successful international businesses.  Amazon is an online retail business selling products from books, to household goods, electronics, you name it, Amazon will most likely have it.

Amazon owes most of it's success to its' immense selection of online goods and services at a competitive price. Amazon uses the global strategy to reach many demographics and even has retail websites specifically for the UK, Canada, Japan, China, France and several other countries. Amazon differs than other online retail sites due to the fact of the many options there are choose to from on the site. Amazon offers features such as e-books that can only be accessed from their site and the Amazon-Prime program offers many perks such as free 2-day shipping, rent e-books for a short amount of time and even movies or television shows.

I use Amazon on a daily basis from something simple as ordering a rug or even clothes to even having my wedding registry on Amazon. I believe that because Amazon is such an easily accessible site that is hassle-free that is what makes consumers flock to the site. There are several perks on the site as stated above that I have enjoyed as well. They are a customer- service based company and as we know it is the people that make a company go global, not the company itself.

2nd Response Question

My company does not compete on an international basis, therefore, I am choosing McDonald's to discuss. McDonald's uses a Transnational approach (think global, act local) to strategy that allows them to compete on an international basis, that is why their success has expanded to over 100 countries and more than 36,000 locations worldwide (Our Story, n.d.). The first drive-through location started near a military base in Arizona in 1975, to serve soldiers who could not get out of their cars while wearing fatigues (Our History, n.d.), and McDonald's has been adapting and changing ever since. McDonald's uses this middle ground approach by keeping the same basic competitive theme in each country, but allows the local management the autonomy to adapt country-specific variations in product attributes to best fit local buyers, and make needed adjustments in production, distribution, and marketing to respond to local conditions and compete successfully against local rivals (Gamble, 2015).

Two chief elements of McDonalds' strategy for competing in two or more different geographic regions include the availability of delivery service in some international locations, and local menu options that best fit the tastes of the geographic region. An example of an adjustment to distribute to the local market comes from Hong Kong, where a customer can place an online order through the McDonald's app, 24 hours a day. Delivery is free with a purchase of HK$70 or more, and there is a specific menu for before 11am and after 11 am (24 Hours, n.d.).  An example of adapting product attributes to fit local buyers comes from many McDonald's locations in various countries, but in South Africa, a customer can order a Chicken McMuffin breakfast sandwich (with egg), Veggie Burger or Chicken Mac ( McDonalds, n.d.) - those menu items are not available at all locations.