Dr. Gao interviewed by Atlanta Business Chronicle for her research on Home Depot China
KENNESAW, Ga. (Apr 30, 2013) — Recently, Dr. Gao sat down with Atlanta Business Chronicle's Ruchika Tulshyan about Home Depot's failure in China.
From the article:
The Home Depot Inc. entered China in 2006 by acquiring 12 stores from Home Way, a Chinese company. But by September 2012, all Home Depot stores closed in China.
While cultural differences were cited by Home Depot CFO Carol Tome for the failure, a new study found the Atlanta-based retailer could have succeeded if it catered to Chinese women.
In 74 percent of homes in North America and Asia, the woman is fully engaged in deciding what and where to shop, according to a 2008 Pew Research Center survey.
“I can’t stress the importance of how much of a missed opportunity this was for Home Depot,” said May Hongmei Gao, associate professor of communication at Kennesaw State University, and the researcher for the five-year study entitled “Culture determined business models: analyzing Home Depot’s failure case in China for international retailers from a communication perspective.”
