IWIM - Institut für Weltwirtschaft und Internationales Management IWIM - Institute for World Economics and International Management Why did Wal-Mart fail in Germany? Andreas Knorr and Andreas Arndt Materialien des Wissenschaftsschwerpunktes „Globalisierung der Weltwirtschaft“ Band 24 Hrsg. von Andreas Knorr, Alfons Lemper, Axel Sell, Karl Wohlmuth Universität Bremen Why did Wal-Mart fail in Germany? Andreas Knorr and Andreas Arndt Andreas Knorr, Alfons Lemper, Axel Sell, Karl Wohlmuth (Hrsg.): Materialien des Wissenschaftsschwerpunktes „Globalisierung der Weltwirtschaft“, Bd. 24, Juni 2003, ISSN 0948-3837 (ehemals: Materialien des Universitätsschwerpunktes „Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen und Internationales Management“) Bezug: IWIM - Institut für Weltwirtschaft und Internationales Management Universität Bremen Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaft Postfach 33 04 40 D- 28334 Bremen Telefon: 04 21 / 2 18 - 34 29 Telefax: 04 21 / 2 18 - 45 50 E-mail:
[email protected] Homepage: http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de Abstract Clearly dominating the US retail market, Wal-Mart expanded into Germany (and Eu- rope) in late 1997. Wal-Mart’s attempt to apply the company’s proven US success for- mula in an unmodified manner to the German market, however, turned out to be nothing short of a fiasco. Upon closer inspection, the circumstances of the company’s failure to establish itself in Germany give reason to believe that it pursued a fundamentally flawed internationalization strategy due to an incredible degree of ignorance of the specific features of the extremely competitive German retail market. Moreover, instead of attracting consumers with an innovative approach to retailing, as it has done in the USA, in Germany the company does not seem to be able to offer customers any com- pelling value proposition in comparison with its local competitors.