Task Overview: Each student will pick a company and, after gathering company information and undertaking secondary research, analyse the organisation’s international performance by applying a range of...

International Business
Table of Contents
Introduction    3
Body    3
Background of the company    3
Airbnb as a Born Global Firm    3
Internationalization in Airbnb and the reason behind it    5
SWOT analysis of Airbnb    8
PESTLE analysis of Airbnb    9
Porter’s Five Forces for Airbnb    10
Conclusion and recommendations    11
References    12
Assessment 2 – Reflection report    14
Aspect 1: the most challenging aspects of the individual project and the group work (3-5)    14
Aspect 2: The theories and the problem-solving approaches that helped me to overcome the challenges that I experienced    15
References    16
Introduction
The company that is taken into account for carrying out this particular task is “Airbnb”. One of the major aspects that this paper will be exploring is international business concerning Airbnb with the help of some of the tools such as Porter’s Five Forces, SWOT analysis, PESTLE analysis, The network model of internationalization, Product Life Cycle Theory, National Competitive Advantage Theory as well as also applying is born global firms. It has been observed that from the year 2008 itself this firm is applying effective digital marketing strategies and so the online marketplace of the firm has witnessed a huge amount of growth. International companies such as Airbnb are gaining a lot of popularity along with its success all across the globe. These companies are also helping a lot of consumers for finding out the goods and services easily as well as with an economical expenditure of money and also time.
Body
Background of the company
Airbnb is an American firm that came into existence in the year 2008 in California. Furthermore, this company also tends to serve as an excellent online marketplace for booking vacation homes on a rental basis. If someone looks into the website then they will observe that there is a wide range of properties available such as homestays, lodgings, hotels, studio apartments, etc. The main service that is provided by the company is hospitality and lodging. However, this firm was also criticized for driving up the home rents as well as creating some nuisances for the people who are living near the leased properties. Furthermore, Airbnb is registered is regulated by a lot of jurisdictions consisting of the European Union along with the other cities for instance New York City and San Francisco. It is observed as one of the most significant competitive threats in the hotel industry (Zervas et al., 2017).
Airbnb as a Born Global Firm
The born global firm is a business organization that from the inception only searches for deriving a lot of competitive advantage by using the resources as well as selling the outputs in a lot of countries. There are a lot of companies across the globe that tends to be global but that doesn’t make them born global company. Born global firms are also defined as the companies that tend to strive for growing global performance within a short time after they are born.
It can be stated that Airbnb is a born global firm like other major multinational firms in the world such as Microsoft, Siemens, etc. They are always introduced toward exploiting a global niche from the first day of its operations. Airbnb is one of the biggest examples concerning the concept of born global firms as they have managed to gain an ample amount of success within a short period. Furthermore, this firm has already reached more than 190 million countries in just eight years so the term born global firm is completely justified. The following are some of the most significant characteristics that make Airbnb a born global firm:
Firstly, Airbnb from the day it came into existence had high activity in the international markets. Furthermore, they have also advanced via subsequent stages in terms of collaboration, internalization with the foreign partners (Cavusgil and Knight, 2015).
Secondly, another major characteristic that showcases that Airbnb is a born global firm is the emphasis on the differentiation strategy. Furthermore, Airbnb always adopted the differentiation strategies by designing their services that are quite distinctive that also target the niche markets. One of the main focuses of Airbnb revolves around stimulating the loyalty of the consumers by uniquely meeting specific needs (Woldegiyorgis et al., 2018).
Airbnb stated that their main aim revolves around being “glocal” and it indicates being local and global at the same time. However, to make this brand work, it is an absolute necessity for being everywhere. It can be argued that being local and global at the same time also invites some of the major challenges. Hence, the major problem Airbnb tends to face is managing the global-local tag (Perez-Sanchez et al., 2018). On one hand, there are some the aspects such as the standards of cleanliness that need to be applied in all of the places. On the other hand, for completing against the rooms of the hotel in every place it is necessary for being unique by considering the local differences. One model for customization of Airbnb is that it adjusts contributions as indicated by the nearby choices in terms of the local payment. Before the Olympics came to Rio, the stage just upheld U.S. dollars for the installment in Brazil. With the Olympics and the development capability of the Airbnb market in Brazil, a couple more payment methods were added, for example, public Mastercards that can charge in the Brazilian money, the Real. One more example for considering the local differences in the signup strategies. In China, Airbnb acknowledges log-ins from clients with Weibo or WeChat accounts, while in the United States the join is made with a Google or Facebook account, which wouldn't work for China (Vahlne and Johanson, 2017).
Internationalization in Airbnb and the reason behind it
It has been observed that after four years of existence Airbnb the record number of 1 million bookings that itself created history. Furthermore, further in the year 2016 this particular number even doubled and the worth of the firm was about $7 billion higher than when contrasted with the Hilton worldwide (Quattrone et al., 2016). Internationalization played one of the most important roles in making the company stand out from the crowd. Airbnb had the intent of internalizing from the day they were born. Throwing light on the above-mentioned discussion it can be stated that one of the most important aspects in terms of the popularity of the company is not connected with the lump sum amount of investment in the real estate instead of it encouraging a lot of owners for listing their properties on the website of the company as well as drawing a lot of tourists for booking the accommodations. Hence, internationalism has also played one of the most vital roles in enhancing the success of Airbnb. Arguably, internationalism has both negative and positive impacts on the firm’s functioning. One of the most significant advantages is the possibility of finding consumers in a lot of countries all across the globe as well as satisfying their needs as well. However, one of the major disadvantages that are possessed in terms of working in an international market consists of the legal problems that surround the sharing economy, some countries have conservative cultures and that do not comply with the culture of Airbnb that mainly includes openness and the problem of retaining the users.
Throwing light on the above-mentioned discussion it can be said that network relationships are regarded as most beneficial for social networking tourism. In some of the analyses concerning the modern tourism industry, it has been showcased that Airbnb has the most up-to-date alternatives for the classic traveling services because of the active engagement in the network relationships (Oskam, 2019). On the other hand, there are some of the studies that have also indicated the issue analyzing the impact in terms of the impact of social capital inequalities and network effects on internationalization. Furthermore, it is mentioned by some researchers that using information technology helps SMEs for entering foreign despite their size (Adamiak, 2019). Furthermore, one of the most positive aspects in terms of firms for instance Airbnb exploiting the networks is that they have the chance of reducing the constraints regarding networks. Some research works show that network relationships also tend to help SMEs for developing strategic flexibility. It is the concept that also involves the capability of a company to manage the problems that are taking place from the changes in the marketplace as well as maintaining the highest competitive level.
Arguably, global firms like Airbnb can be classified as the born global firms as they are internationalized from the day they are born. However, on the contrary, a study of Airbnb’s internationalization into Africa is observed as an application of the revised Uppsala model and as per this model, a company tends to...