QUESTION TWO (65 MARKS) Read the following case study and answer the questions that follow: Massmart to open 20 stores in Pan-African expansion

South African retailer Massmart is continuing its Pan-African expansion with plans to open about 20 new stores outside its home market over the next three years, the companys chairperson said on Monday. Massmart, majority-owned by US retail giant Wal-Mart, sells goods ranging from food and televisions to refrigerators and operates nearly 400 stores, including 42 across 12 countries outside South Africa. Were very bullish about Africa, sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, Kuseni Dlamini told Reuters on the side-lines of the African CEO Forum in Ivory Coasts commercial capital Abidjan. This year alone we will be opening eight new stores on the African continent. In the next three years well be expanding our retail trading space by 35.6%. That is an increase from around 26% in 2017 and 2018. New stores are due to open in Kenya, Ghana, Mozambique, Zambia, and Swaziland. Dlamini said Massmart is also studying markets in French-speaking West and Central Africa with a view to starting operations there. When we talk about growing our business across sub-Saharan Africa, that definitely includes Francophone Africa, he said. South African retailers have struggled as consumers battling job losses and high personal debt levels hold back on spending, but Massmart has lagged its closest rival Shoprite both on the stock market and operationally in recent years.

Questions: 2.1 Elucidate the challenges that Massmart management would have had to consider when deciding on which countries to invest in and what strategic decisions they may have been faced with as far as market entry is concerned. (35)

2.2 Advise, the Senior management of Massmart on the fundamental foreign market entry decisions that an organisation should consider before entering the foreign market. (30)