INTRODUCTION

Vodafone is the second-largest mobile communications operator across the world, having its headquarters in Newbury, Berkshire, England. The company, being a global corporation, has seen many ups and downs in its life along with getting affected through major shifts in economic trends. In the present study, there will be a focus on the benefits that the company gained through international expansion and the reasons behind the same with many other discussions associated with its journey.
PART 1
1. Benefits gained by Vodafone from expanding globally, helping it to maintain the leading position in Europe
With the international expansion, Vodafone got the major benefit of its enlarged network which is composed of 24 owned subsidiaries along with 40 partners and joint ventures. Company used some strategies for expanding abroad among which the most successful one was related to quality and price. It offered high quality services at reasonable rates so that everyone could easily afford. Another strategy was related to traits and patents (Hasan Mahmud and García-Medina, 2018). Vodafone tried to hold a unique trait i.e. providing different and innovative services along with making customers aware with same through distinct ways like social and digital media. Motivating employees was also one of their major strategies that they used for keeping the morale of employees high, who are the main reason behind making the services successful in market (Niaz and Medina, 2018). Company involved their new and creative ideas and executed the same.
There are many benefits that Vodafone gained with their global expansion. One of the main advantages that organization is enjoying is that of holding a strong position and brand image in the market with retaining the customers. Apart from that, organization was also benefitted in a way that now, it has become a multicultural as well as a diversified organization. However, to maintain its leading position in the European market, company can use its strategy related to the price and innovation wherein, it can make suitable adjustments in the prices charged for the offered services and bring new techniques through buying the license of more advanced networks (Kalam, 2020). Vodafone has brand loyal customers in the European market where it was the first mover to bring technologies like 3G and 4G.

2. Reason behind the expansion of Vodafone towards the U.S.
The first international move made by Vodafone was towards the British Colonies and protectorates like Gulf States and Malta. The potential that these markets were having for business were along with less cultural differences.. There, in very limited geographical territories, small operators were present. Therefore, in the year 1999, Vodafone decided to acquire AirTouch Cellular which was a Californian corporation using AMPS technology standard at that time and was the largest wireless company of the U.S. (Tidd and Bessant, 2020). In this acquisition, Vodafone got successful in acquiring 45% stake in AirTouch and became Vodafone AirTouch Plc.
Although there was no technology compatibility between North America and Europe, the major reason of Vodafone was behind this merger was that AirTouch was having the largest customer base, being served by its ventures. Therefore, at the time of union, the merger of Vodafone AirTouch Plc resulted in incurring the capitalization of $110 billion. With this, the combined company reached at the third-largest position as UK public company with having their operations in 23 nations. This included their holdings in eleven European countries with all major markets. Further, it also helped in saving the costs of the company with the development and acquisition of 3G next-generation mobile handsets in addition with improved software and infrastructure (Kumar, Kumar and Amboy, 2019).
Competencies that Vodafone could use in this venture were ceaseless innovation, formidable size and buying power as well as incomparable value and great customer service. Apart from that, its successful marketing strategies could also be used in this venture to make it a fast and big success in US and UK markets.
3. Resistance of German government and public for the acquisition of Mannesmann by Vodafone
As Vodafone is a cross-cultural (multi-cultural) organization, the German government and public resisted the acquisition of Mannesmann by this company in late 1999 because it wanted to defend the German culture of corporate governance (Schulten and Thornsten, 1999). The reason behind this is that they considered their culture to be based on the high involvement of employees and co-determination. However, due to this resistance, the company took the viewpoints of employees on this issue along with the support of major political parties in Germany. Later, it reacted to the criticism and made a judgment that after this acquisition of Mannesmann, the company will follow the German system of industrial culture (Kumar, 2019).
There are many similarities with the lack of success that Vodafone gained at the time of acquiring a stake in China mobile in recent years. The company decided to move forward in its target to make disposal of all their assets belonging to minority telecom wherein, it was selling its 3.2 stakes in CM (China Mobile). For the same, Vodafone took a consortium of banks amounting to US$6.6 billion. In between the period of 2000-2002, the company acquired a total stake of $3.3 billion in China mobile and confirmed that it has decided to continue its strategic alliance with them (Wharton and Garrison, 2010). However, this appeal was straightforwardly rejected by India’s Bombay High Court due to high debt load of Vodafone.

PART 2
2. Major shifts in world economy over last 30 years and their implications for global corporations
Over the last 30 years, the economy across world has shifted drastically. In 1960s, the basic demographic of the globe could be easily described through four stylized facts. The first one was the dominance of U.S. in trade and in global economy. Second was related to the foreign direct investment (FDI) at the global level where also, U.S. was dominating. In third one, again U.S. was the leading player with respect to the multinational U.S. firms operating internationally. The fourth one was related to the centrally planned economies that come under the communist world. In the present scenario, this demographic is totally changed (Gilpin, 2018). Though, U.S. is still at the leading dominating position having the highest economic power across the world, its share of exports as well as the total output at the global level has declined to a high extent since the 1960s.

Further, there is a significant shift in the power of MNCs which can be seen through firstly, rise in their number, mainly the non-U.S. firms, Japanese (in particular). Secondly, the emergence of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) took place which is also known as mini-multinationals. Further, the final shift in the world’s economy is the fall of Communism in eastern part of Europe (Cobham and Janský, 2019). This dramatic shift has put various implications on the global corporations of Britain, North America and the European Union. It is because; many Communist nations of Europe and Asia are free-market economies that believe in sharing their commitment to democratic politics. Further, the Latin America also seems to have similar developments. However, with the continuation of these trends, nations are enjoying huge business opportunities across the globe. Impact that these shifts have on North America and Britain is same in a way that these countries were earlier the dominating players in the world and facing very minor competition from the developing nations, which now has completely changed (Cohen, 2018). In the current era, they need to compete with all their competitors across globe to win their orders.
Further, the phase of 2008-2018 can be called as an eventful period for all the economies of world. . Especially, the European Union was threatened for their survival. Today, the scene is totally different where Europe is facing high competition from all across the world for trading good and services (Gilpin, 2018). Apart from that, the shift in world economy made it easier for EU to expand and get access for new sources of finance and technology.

3. Formulate recommendations for expanding into Western Europe
Technology evolves on a very fast speed and the development of 3-D printer which functions the same as existing but has a manufacturing cost comparatively low is a revolution in the hardware industry. Since the unique design of the printer is patented thus it creates an opportunity to license to manufacture or set up unit in Western Europe to expand the business in addition to the export route. All the options are critically evaluated below:
a) Exporting the printer will provide access to larger consumer groups and market diversification offers the plan B in case if the domestic market starts to fatal and reaches demand saturation. Although custom duties and regulatory requirements involved in exporting are expensive in terms of time, cost and effort.
b) Selling the license of manufacturing and selling the printers in Western Europe is another effective option to create a brand name in the European market and enhance the sale of Printers but the Operational cost to monitor the sale of printers is high and risk of losing the control over the same is difficult.
c) Another available option is setting a wholly-owned subsidiary in Europe which will expand our market reach and business will be expanded beyond geographies without losing control. However, setting up the WOS will attract the regulatory compliances for accounting and business administration of Europe which will enhance the cost and involve the setting up of whole new unit all the departments to manage the same.
According to me, exporting the printer is the best option, and cost of delivery and customs duties can be easily recovered from customers without compromising on comparative prices of the 3 D printer.

CONCLUSION
From the above study, it can be concluded that Vodafone is one of the leading multinational organizations that adopted numerous strategies to maintain their leading position in the market by grabbing high market share and increased goodwill. The most successful strategies for the company were going for strategic alliances to expand in international markets. The main focus of Vodafone was always on enhancing its customer base through rendering them higher satisfaction with offering quality services at reasonable rates.

REFERENCES

Cobham, A. and Janský, P., 2019. Measuring misalignment: The location of US multinationals’ economic activity versus the location of their profits. Development Policy Review, 37(1), pp.91-110.

Cohen, R.B., 2018. 12 The new international division of labor, multinational corporations and urban hierarchy. Urbanization and urban planning in capitalist society, 7.

Gilpin, R., 2018. The challenge of global capitalism: The world economy in the 21st century. Princeton University Press.

Hasan Mahmud, N. and García-Medina, I., 2018. Vodafone: The relationship between brand image and online marketing strategies. IROCAMM: International Review Of Communication And Marketing Mix, 1, 7-31.

Kalam, K.K., 2020. Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning Strategy Adaptation for the Global Business of Vodafone Telecommunication Company.

Kumar, B.R., Kumar, B.R. and Amboy, 2019. Wealth Creation in the World’s Largest Mergers and Acquisitions. Springer International Publishing.

Kumar, R., 2019. Vodafone Acquisition of Mannesmann: Integrated Case Studies. Wealth Creation in the World’s Largest Mergers and Acquisitions. pp.17-29.

Niaz, H.M. and Medina, I.G., 2018. Vodafone: The relationship between brand image and online marketing strategies. IROCAMM-International Review Of Communication And Marketing Mix, (1), pp.7-31.

Schulten and Thornsten., 1999. Vodafone’s hostile takeover bid for Mannesmann highlights debate on the German capitalist model. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/article/1999/vodafones-hostile-takeover-bid-for-mannesmann-highlights-debate-on-the-german-capitalist-model>.

Tidd, J. and Bessant, J.R., 2020. Managing innovation: integrating technological, market and organizational change. Wiley.

Wharton, P. W. R. and Garrison, L. L. P., 2010. Vodafone sells China Mobile stake, loses appeal of India tax case. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=d0e4e4a9-faa8-4328-ae1f-c955e3e27b2d>.