An Investigation into the Challenges Faced By Car Manufacturing Companies Entering European Markets and How These Challenges Can Be Overcome – A Case Study of Volkswagen and General Motors (2013)
The dissertation begins with the exploration of the facts and figures related to European Automotive manufacturing industry and then highlights the role of car manufacturers in the industry. The subsequent sections are dedicated to detailed discussion of market entry strategies adopted by Volkswagen and General Motors and a glimpse of their journey so far in car manufacturing in European markets is presented with current statistics. Further, the discussion of the identified policies and strategies is performed and it is presented from different research perspectives.
The concluding section of this research brings to the forefront a conclusive summary of findings that will help in understanding market entry strategies for car manufacturing businesses in specific regions and this summary would help similar organisations succeed in global markets. General Motors followed Volkswagen in establishing innovation as a department to establish specific regional centers of excellence and based their research and development initiatives undertaken by the core engineering groups to focus on customer specific production.
Technological advancements like automation of tasks related to production, etc. was performed and helped the overall functional offerings of General Motors in the market and they have used these techniques in the most collaborated manner. The market share of General Motors began to rise slowly and the factors influencing this rise included the brand identity of General Motors too.
Volkswagen employed employees with great creativity in the region and relocated business leaders who were consulted in the process of formulating policies and procedures for the right market capture policies to set business up in the region. Volkswagen dealt with the major problems of cultural gap by formulating standard company policies and by launching these synchronized policies in all organizational business units in all geographical locations and this resulted into a reduced draining of available regional talent and increased coordination amongst teams in different regions, working together on the same concept of innovation.
This helped Volkswagen establish the right spirit of organisation in a synchronized and a more focused way and helped in achieving organisational objectives of continuous growth and development. The next chapter deals with related academic literature. The author makes use of relevant research to establish how European automotive markets are different from other global markets and how researchers have targeted their specific market strategies to understand their survival in these markets. The subsequent chapter presents the methodology adopted by the author to collect the data for this particular research initiative. The author presents the viewpoints about the use of secondary data by discussing the limitations that caused the author to follow the approach.
The specific details of the research data collection methods employed in this research initiative is discussed and the author even presents the advantages and reasons for using them. The next chapter discusses the details of findings and results of the collected data, when it is analyzed. The author compares related data in other global markets and uses those templates for establishing vital facts from the collected data. The last chapter details the discussion of the objectives of the research and presents conclusions as elaborated from the previous chapters. The author presents conclusive details related to conducted research and presents the results to the reader in the most understandable format.
Dissertation objectives;
- To identify challenges faced by car manufacturing companies in European Markets and to discuss how GM and VW overcame these challenges
- To establish a parallel framework that naive automotive companies can use while entering into a new market segment
- To discuss in detail the strategies adopted by GM and Volkswagen in overcoming cultural and traditional differences in employees at the time of their entry in European markets and underline the solutions
- To highlight the role of standardization process in different regional communities and the importance of standardization in terms of increased revenue and increased employee growth
- 15,000 words – 54 pages in length
- Excellent use of literature
- Good analysis of subject area
- Well written throughout
- Ideal for business and marketing students
1 – Introduction
Company Backgrounds
Research Objectives
2 – Literature Review
Car Manufacturing Data (Global)
Theoretical Background of the Automotive Industry
European Car Manufacturing Industry
Brief Time-line of General Motors Europe and Volkswagen
Market Entry Strategies of General Motors Europe
General Motors: Strategies That Made the Entire Difference
Volkswagen: Market Entry Strategies
Porter’s Diamond Model – Data Analysis
3 – Methodology
Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Data Collection
Primary Data Sources
Secondary Data Sources
Discussion on Selection of Secondary Sources of Data
Methods Employed
Recorded Interview Transcripts
Published Statistics
Published Text
Online Magazine Material
Company Reports
News and News Portals
Advertisement Videos
Expert Reviews
Reliability
Validity
Limitations
Which Paradigm
Inductive and Deductive Approach
4 – Findings and Results
Case Study Volkswagen
Case Study General Motors
Analysis of Literature Review
Business Data of Volkswagen and GM
Volkswagen and GM In A Global Context
Analysis of Data
5 – Analysis and Conclusion
Conclusive Responses to Research Objectives
References
Appendix Section