International Market Entry

Decide whether to expand beyond the home market, which country to enter first and by which mode, with a staged plan and kill criteria. Method sources: Johnson et al. (2017) Exploring Strategy, 11th edn, Pearson, chapter 9 (Yip drivers, Porter's Diamond, CAGE, institutional voids, retaliation, entry modes); Wheelen et al. (2018) Concepts in Strategic Management and Business Policy, 15th edn, Pearson, chapter 9 (entry-mode ladder, alliance fit, international control). The governing judgement: attractiveness alone never selects a country; distance, missing institutions and the incumbent's response decide whether the firm can win there.

Use When

• A Ugandan or East African firm plans to sell into Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Sudan, the DRC or another country, and the plan must justify the country order and entry mode.
• A plan or marketing plan needs a market-selection exhibit comparing two to five candidate countries or regions.
• The owner must choose between exporting, licensing, franchising, a distributor, a joint venture or its own subsidiary.
• A foreign firm entering Uganda needs the same analysis from the other side (institutional voids, local-partner need, entry mode).

Do Not Use When

• Use 04-market-analysis instead to size and describe a chosen market; this skill decides which market and how to enter it.
• Use ecommerce-unit-economics-and-cross-border-margin-model instead for landed-cost and margin modelling of cross-border e-commerce.
• Use meta-strategic-options-evaluation instead when international expansion is one option among several strategic directions still being screened.
• Use the relevant country-context/ file for a country's tax, regulatory and banking facts; this skill only lists the checks to run.
• Do not assert tariffs, rules of origin, licensing rules, tax rates or market statistics from memory; they are checks for the Digital research engine.