Poster

Yesterday I presented my poster of ideas for my research to the class. I got a lot of great feedback from discussing my ideas with my classmates and reading their responses. I am still conducting research on this topic, and I especially need to look into the exchange rate when I am discussing money due to the differences in the value of China's money in relation to the American Dollar. The poster helped me organize my ideas and allowed the class to give me some pointers on some things I needed to improve upon. This was a very useful exercise.

Expert Interview

Since I am researching the differences between Wal-Marts in America and Wal-Marts in China, I wanted to interview someone who has been in both types of Wal-Marts. Pretty much everyone I know has been to a Wal-Mart in America, but I only know one person who has actually been in a Wal-Mart in China. This person is Buck Goldstein, the same professor I have that I interviewed for the digitization group project. Buck Goldstein is a professor in the Entrepreneurship Minor, and every summer, a portion of the students in the minor travel the China for 9 weeks and work there and take classes there. When Buck was in China helping to set up this study abroad in China program, one of his students said, "I'm going to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, would you like to come?" Buck said "of course" and went to a Wal-Mart in China with one of his students who also happened to be fluent in Chinese.

Buck's experience in the Chinese Wal-Mart is congruent with the research I have been conducting on Wal-Marts in China. He said that the Wal-Mart was in the middle of the city he was in (Beijing) and that it was a multi-story building. He said that the store was jam packed, way more crowded than any Wal-Mart he had ever been in in America. He also said that there were vastly different items for sale such as a wet market full of fish and turtles that they would buy to eat over there. During my research, I have discovered similar findings. The major differences between the two types of Wal-Marts comes from the major differences between America and China.

updates

I am nearing the conclusion of my research component of this project, and now I am focusing on putting all of my research into ideas for my poster and final paper. The annotated bibliography helped me organize my sources and weed out the sources that weren't as good as some of the other sources I have found. Some interesting things I have found out through my research have been that Wal-Mart employees in China are in unions, and American employees are not. Also, there are many other differences in the items for sale in Chinese Wal-Marts, and the corporate culture in Chinese Wal-Marts is very different than that of the American Wal-Marts. I am presenting my poster on December 3rd, an I think that it will help my project to get some more outside opinions and suggestions from the class.

Questions

1) Is the Chinese government the reason that Wal-Mart does not have more stores in China?


2) If so, why does the Chinese government not want them to have more stores?


3) Are there any ways in which Wal-Mart can negotiate with the government to somehow form and agreement and open more stores?


4) What are the general differences Wal-Mart will face when operating in a democratic country like America and operating in a communist country like China?


5) Does having Wal-Mart in China somehow benefit their government or does it somehow deter their government from accomplishing its goals?

Blog Activity for 8/24/07

1) Wal-Mart has a relatively low number of stores in China, and can afford to expand.

2) This issue is important because Wal-Mart has a store in just about every town in America, and has almost saturated American markets with Wal-Marts. However, they have a relatively low amount of stores in China, and all of those stores are packed with customers. This topic is in need for investigation because I want to know why Wal-Mart does not have more stores in China. This could be that they have not been in China long enough to build more stores, or maybe the communist government won't let them build more stores. I would like to figure out why this is the case.

3) If I could find out why there are not more Wal-Marts in China, I would have a better understanding of the impact and effects Wal-Mart is having on China and it's citizens. If I find out why there aren't more stores there, it will give me a better understanding on if it is the government or if it is the customers who feel that having more stores is a bad idea. My hypothesis is that it is a mix between the fact that Wal-Mart has not had enough time to build more stores, and that the government might not want them to build more stores as the answer to my question.

Updates

I have recently checked out a couple of books from the library and downloaded a few articles about Wal-Mart. The book I checked out for the log has been very helpful and if full of useful information about the effects Wal-Mart is having on China. So far, Wal-Mart does not have nearly as large of an impact on China as it does on America since there are not a lot of Wal-Marts in China yet. My research has led me to such discoveries like; some of the Wal-Marts in China have two stories, there are live animals such as turtles and fish for sale to eat in the Chinese stores, and the Chinese stores are way more crowded and full of people shopping than the Wal-Marts in America. The stores there are packed, which leads me to believe that there is a high demand for Wal-Marts in China, and there is still room for Wal-Mart to expand over there.

Monday's Blog Activity

I chose part B of the blog activity for today, which was to conduct a focused reseach session and comment on it afterwards. I went to the library and got on one of the computers and searched through journals and websites about Wal-Mart. I spent about an hour and a half researching my topic and made good progress. The Google search tools we learned last week were very helpful in my online searches. I was able to find out a lot of information about Wal-Mart in America, and Wal-Mart in China and how the two relate to each other with regards to the effects each of them cause. So far, I have found that Wal-Mart in America as been more invasive and has caused more problems than it has in China. I think this is because it has not been in China for very long and does not have as many stores in China.

New Research Topic

My new research topic is: How do the effects of having Wal-Marts in China differ from the effect Wal-Marts have in America?

In Class Exercise 3

During the 20 minutes alloted for research, I looked at a few websites containing information about my subject. I throughly read all of the information contained in these sites, and made sure that the sites were not biased. I feel like the information I obtained was very helpful, and the way I went about doing research was effective and efficient. I think that this was a good exercise, and I feel like I am going about my research in a more sophisticated way than I did before enrolling in this class. The process I used and the information I obtained were both beneficial to my research and my goal for this assignment. With more research, I think that this should turn out to be a good experience.

In Class Exercise 1

My topic area is the option of using Ethanol as an alternative to gasoline for America.

A primary research question is; Do the benefits of using ethanol exceed the problems it might cause with regards to the economy and the environment?

2 sub questions are; Is President Bush in support of using ethanol?
Are the 2008 candidates for president in support of using ethanol?

Kulthau’s Theory

The initial stages of Kulthau’s theory include initiation, selection, and exploration. These are steps everyone who does research goes through, even if they are unaware of doing so. Currently, I have completed the initiation and selection stages since I have already decided my topic and found some resources and articles that contain information on my research subject. I am still working on the exploration stage because I have found a lot of information, and I am currently sorting through what is good, what is not so good, and what exactly I need for the particular research subject.

Brief Blog exercise

David McCollum

My prospectus is about finding out whether or not ethanol is a viable alternative to gasoline for America. I have a general understanding about the pros and cons of using ethanol, but I need to find out a lot more specific information through my research. Areas I need to find specific information about include: other countries or instances where ethanol is being used, effects to the environment ethanol will have, economic effects that ethanol will have, and information specific to America with regards to using ethanol. I think the topic I am researching is not too broad or too narrow because there is a lot of information in favor of using ethanol and there is a lot of information saying that ethanol is not a good alternative. This topic covers politics, environmental issues, and economic issues. My end result to this research should give me a clear understanding as to whether or not using ethanol for fuel is a viable alternative for America.

Is Ethanol a good alternative to gasolie in America's search for alternative energy sources

Prospectus

It is a well known fact that the oil we use to fuel our cars is running out at an extreme rate, and that America needs to find an alternative energy source to fuel our cars. A recent alternative that is very popular is using ethanol made from corn to fuel our cars. Using a renewable resource like corn to fuel our cars sounds like a brilliant idea since it would lessen our reliability on countries in the Middle East for oil, and it would give us an alternative when fossil fuels run out. However, a closer look at this subject reveals that using ethanol to fuel our cars is not as good as it sounds. Even though corn and ethanol are not fossil fuels, the machinery made to grow the corn and then turn it into ethanol burn fossil fuels. Also, the increase in demand for corn this is causing is severely increasing the price of corn. America is also using a large portion of it’s corn crop for ethanol. By conducting further research on this topic, I hope to come to a conclusion as to whether or not using ethanol is a viable alternative in America’s search for different ways to fuel our automobiles. Methods used to gather information on this subject will include magazine articles, scholarly journals, and editorials.

First Blog Post

This is my first blog post, enjoy

-David McCollum