Groupon
Transnational Management: Applied to the Case of
Groupon
Maastricht University
School of Business and Economics
Maastricht, Dec. 4th, 2012
Course: Global Business
Table of contents
Page
1. Introduction
2
2. Business model
3
3. Organizational Structure
4
4. Groupon’s corporate strategy
5
5. Groupons global strategy
6
6. Groupon’s entry to China
7
7. An Evolving Role
10
8. Conclusion
11
9. References
12
10. Appendix
13
1. Introduction
Groupon is a deal-of-the day Internet start-up company that was launched in 2008 in Chicago.
The website offers discounted deals for local as well as national companies. Now operating in more than 150 markets as diverse as the United States, Canada, Taiwan, Brazil, Europe, South
America, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, China, Russia and many more.
Consequently there is no doubt that this company is a multinational enterprise (MNE).
Groupon had 35 million registered users by October 2010 and thus has been one of the fastest growing businesses in the world (Lacrote, 2011). According to Andrew Mason, founder and
CEO, Groupon was founded to be the first company to offer the very best deals available.
This could only be done by contacting local merchants directly which gave Groupon its competitive advantage. Using this local responsiveness Groupon is able to offer the best deals every day within 24 hours (Cutler, 2010).
The aim of this paper is to analyze how successful Groupon’s global strategy can be implemented worldwide. Firstly an overall impression of Groupon’s business model and organizational structure is given. Secondly a deeper insight in the corporate strategy as well as the global strategy is provided. Furthermore the unsuccessful entry to China is analyzed and evaluated. Finally this paper conducts to what extent Groupon can be considered socially responsible before a conclusion is drawn in the last section.
2. The
Groupon
Maastricht University
School of Business and Economics
Maastricht, Dec. 4th, 2012
Course: Global Business
Table of contents
Page
1. Introduction
2
2. Business model
3
3. Organizational Structure
4
4. Groupon’s corporate strategy
5
5. Groupons global strategy
6
6. Groupon’s entry to China
7
7. An Evolving Role
10
8. Conclusion
11
9. References
12
10. Appendix
13
1. Introduction
Groupon is a deal-of-the day Internet start-up company that was launched in 2008 in Chicago.
The website offers discounted deals for local as well as national companies. Now operating in more than 150 markets as diverse as the United States, Canada, Taiwan, Brazil, Europe, South
America, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, China, Russia and many more.
Consequently there is no doubt that this company is a multinational enterprise (MNE).
Groupon had 35 million registered users by October 2010 and thus has been one of the fastest growing businesses in the world (Lacrote, 2011). According to Andrew Mason, founder and
CEO, Groupon was founded to be the first company to offer the very best deals available.
This could only be done by contacting local merchants directly which gave Groupon its competitive advantage. Using this local responsiveness Groupon is able to offer the best deals every day within 24 hours (Cutler, 2010).
The aim of this paper is to analyze how successful Groupon’s global strategy can be implemented worldwide. Firstly an overall impression of Groupon’s business model and organizational structure is given. Secondly a deeper insight in the corporate strategy as well as the global strategy is provided. Furthermore the unsuccessful entry to China is analyzed and evaluated. Finally this paper conducts to what extent Groupon can be considered socially responsible before a conclusion is drawn in the last section.
2. The
References: Bartlett, C. & Beamish, P. (2011). Transnational Management. New York, USA: McGrawHill Bartlett, C Bhattacharya, A. & Michael, D. (2008). How Local Companies Keep Multinationals at Bay. Campbell, L (2012,November 18). How Groupon and LivingSocial Are Raising Millions for Charity Using Social Media http://socialmediatoday.com Chan & Lee, (2011, February 28) Groupon Enters China, Teams with Tencent Retrieved from http://venturebeat.com/ Deborah, C (2009, June 10) Journal of World Business Zhu, J (2011, November 4)