Business Commons^™

Negotiating Development: Valuation Of A Guesthouse Project In Southern Guinea-Bissau1, Brandon D. Lundy

Faculty Articles

This paper provides a case study illustrating the crossroads between the agendas of international/national economic development with that of the development objectives of local communities. It shows how a community development project connects villagers to the larger world – both practically and imaginatively. This study takes a single case, the process of developing a guesthouse building project among the Nalú of southern Guinea-Bissau, to illustrate how a local attempt to connect to the outside world is intersected by community relations, NGOs, and development discourse. Through a community study using ethnographic methodology including participant observation, interviews, and focus groups, the village …

Culture Determines Business Models: Analyzing Home Depot's Failure Case In China For International Retailers From A Communication Perspective, May Hongmei Gao

Faculty Articles

This article is a result of a longitudinal case study regarding Home Depot's operation in China. From 2006 to 2011, the author conducted 37 in-depth interviews with Home Depot executives, managers, lawyers, employees, suppliers, and consumers, as well as its Western and Chinese competitors. These interviews generated 500+ pages of transcripts and field notes. Home Depot entered China in 2006 by acquiring 12 stores from a Chinese company, Home Way. However, by September 2012 all Home Depot stores in China had been closed.

This interview-based single-case-study research has these notable contributions. First, this research stresses the importance of host culture …