According to Matthews (2016), the international market for learning management systems continues to be highly competitive and dynamic because of increased investments, acquisitions, and mergers by LMS providers. These trend contributes to intense competition in this market, which generates a significant strategic issue for ITs Learning as it expands beyond its home country. The significance of this issue is attributable to that fact that there are several local and foreign developers of LMS across the globe including in Norway. The firm faces stiff competition from two major rivals i.e. BLACKBOARD and CLASS FRONTIER as well as LMS systems customized by every learning institution.
Expansion Strategy
The second major strategic issue facing ITs Learning is identifying a suitable expansion strategy for market entry. For its local growth in Norway, this company utilized a strategy of providing its products to higher learning institutions. When expanding to the Netherlands in 2007, the firm had to change its strategy because of the specific conditions in the market. For instance, ITs Learning had to change its strategy when expanding to France because it had to deal with cultural differences. One of the measures that the company has utilized as part of its expansion strategy is product diversification. Suttle (n.d.), states that product expansion and diversification are some of the growth strategies employed by companies when expanding to new markets. Product expansion involves adding new features or produce line to boost sales and profits whereas product diversification entails selling new products to new markets. ITs Learning seems to rely on product expansion as the premise for its expansion into new markets or beyond its home country. For example, in its expansion to the UK, ITs Learning included filters in its LMS to sort out improper language. The significance of identifying a suitable expansion strategy is evident in the fact that firm recognizes that expanding into a new market requires a lot of planning because of differences in languages, cultures, and rules and regulations across countries.
Cultural Differences
The third strategic issue facing ITs Learning as it expands beyond its home country is cultural differences because every country has different languages and cultures, which affects how learning systems are established and utilized. Culture is an important aspect of conducting trade across international markets and plays an important role for international marketing (Ahmed, Ullah & Allam, 2014). The significance of cultural differences as a major strategic issue for ITs Learning is attributable to the fact that every country has its own values, beliefs, traditions, and customs. In the learning management system market, cultural differences have negative effects on how students particiate in digital learning platforms or online courses (Liu et al., 2010). Cultural factors have significant effects on how learning management systems are developed and utilized within a country. According to Guang & Trotter (2012), cultural factors affect the communication and potential for success for competition.
For instance, when the learning management system was initially developed it incorporated features that reflected the cultural differences in international markets like the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, the system included features that would identify and delete improper words through an e-safety program. As a true innovator, ITs Learning considers language and cultural factors when developing its cloud-based learning management system and its various features. The consideration of cultural differences is an important element to ensure that the system reflects the values, beliefs, traditions, and customs of the specific country or market. Cultural differences are critical strategic issues because of how culture affects businesses in various ways including language problems and pricing difficulties (Deari, Kimmel & Lopez, n.d.).
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