Part III Flashcards
What is an entry mode?
An institutional arrangement for the entry of a company’s products and services into a new foreign market. The main types are export, intermediate and hierarchical modes.
What are the three different rules for selecting an entry mode?
- Naive rule
- Pragmatic rule
- Strategy rule
What is the Naive Rule?
Decision-maker uses the same entry mode for all foreign markets, it ignores the markets’ heterogeneity
What is the Pragmatic Rule?
Decision-maker uses a workable entry mode for each foreign market. Start with a low-risk entry mode. Not all potential alternatives are investigated
What are Strategy Rules
All alternative entry modes are systematically compared and evaluated before any choice is made.
What are transaction costs?
The ‘friction’ between buyer and seller, which is explained by opportunistic behavior
What is opportunistic behavior?
Self-interest with guile, misleading, distortion, disguise and confusion
What is Transaction cost analysis?
Concludes that, if the ‘friction’ between buyer and seller is higher than through an internal hierarchical system, then the firm should internalize
What does externalization lead to (4)?
- Search costs
- Contracting costs
- Monitoring costs
- Enforcement costs
What is externalization?
Doing business through an external partner (importer, agent, distributor)
What is internationalization?
Integration of an external partner into one’s own organization
What elements could result in conflicts and opportunistic actions (4)?
- Stock size of the export intermediary
- Division of marketing costs between producer and export intermediary
- Fixing of prices: from producer -> export intermediary, export intermediary -> customers
- Fixing of commissions to agents
Name two examples of opportunistic behavior from export intermediary ?
- Exaggerating advertising and consumer service costs: normally fixed split of sales-promoting costs
- Manipulate information on market size and competitor prices to obtain lower ex-works prices from the producer
Name two examples of opportunistic behavior from the producer?
- Threatening to use different intermediaries or change entry mode
- Tap the export intermediary for market knowledge and customer contracts in order to internalize (do it themselves)
Name three ‘offsetting’ investments that counterbalance the relationship between opportunistic behavior from the export intermediary to the producer.
- Establish personal relations with producer’s key employees
- Create an independent identity in connection with selling producer’s products
- Add further value to the product, which creates bonds in agent’s customer relations
What are the factors that influence the choice of entry mode (4):
- Internal factors
- External factors
- Desired mode-characteristics
- Transaction-specific factors
What are intermediate modes?
Somewhere between using export modes (external partners) and hierarchical modes (internal modes)
Name the three internal factors:
- Firm size
- International experience
- Product/service
Explain firm size:
Size is an indicator of the firm’s resource availability: increasing resources -> increased international involvement. SMEs have lower resource commitment and export entry modes are more suitable for them. As firm grows, it will increasingly use hierarchical model
Explain international experience:
International experience -> reduces the costs and uncertainty of serving a market -> increases probability of firms committing resources to foreign markets -> favors direct investment in the form of wholly owned subsidiaries (hierarchical modes)
Explain product/service:
Products with high value/weight ratio are typically used for direct exporting
Soft services/products are more likely to choose hierarchical entry mode than hard services Product differentiation advantages -> entry barriers -> natural monopoly -> hierarchical entry
Name the six external factors:
- Sociocultural distance between the home country and host country
- Country risk/demand uncertainty
- Market size and growth
- Direct and indirect trade barriers
- Intensity of competition
- Small number of relevant intermediaries available
Explain the sociocultural distance between the home country and host country:
The greater the sociocultural difference between the countries -> firms will favor entry modes that involve relatively low resource commitments and high flexibility (export mode)
Explain the country risk/demand certainty
Firm risks inventory, receivables, exchange rate risk, political risk. High country risk -> firm will favor entry modes that involve relatively low resource commitments and high flexibility (export mode)
Explain market size and growth:
Large country size -> higher growth rate -> management more likely to commit resources and consider a wholly owned sales subsidiary (hierarchical mode).
Explain the direct and indirect trade barriers:
Tariffs or quota on the import of foreign goods and components favor the establishment of local production or assembly operations (hierarchical modes)
Explain intensity of compeitition:
The greater the intensity of competition in host market, the more the firm will favor entry modes (export modes) that involve low resource commitments
Explain the small number of relevant of relevant intermediaries:
Small number bargaining -> market subject to opportunistic behavior -> firms will favor use of hierarchical modes in order to reduce the scope for opportunistic behavior
Name the three desired mode characteristics:
- Risk-averse
- Control
- Flexibility
Explain what risk-averse
is:
Decision-makers that are risk-averse prefer export modes or intermediate modes, because these typically entail low levels of financial and management commitment
Explain control:
Low level of control -> minimal resource commitment -> indirect exporting / joint ventures Hierarchical mode provide most control, but also require high commitment of resources
Explain flexibility:
Hierarchical modes -> involve large equity investment -> most costly -> least flexible -> most difficult to change in the short run.
Name a transaction-specific factor:
Tacit nature of know-how
Explain tacit nature of know how:
Tacit = tacit knowledge often involves complex products and services, where functionality is very hard to express
Indirect export:
Manufacturing firm does not take direct care of exporting, but another domestic company performs these activities without firm’s involvement in foreign sales
Direct export:
Producing firm takes care of exporting activities and is in direct contact with first intermediary in the foreign target market, firm’s involved in foreign sales to distributors
Cooperative export:
Involves collaborative agreements with other firms concerning the performance of exporting functions
Partner mindshare:
The level of mindshare that the manufacturer’s product occupies in the mind of the export partner
Name the three drives of mindshare:
- Commitment and trust
- Collaboration
- Mutuality of interest and common purpose
What are indirect export modes:
A manufacturer uses independent export organizations located in its own country
What are the main five entries of indirect exporting:
- Export buying agent
- Broker
- Export management company
- Trading company
- Piggyback