| Course | BUS 495 International Business |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 7 |
| Paper type | Market entry recommendation |
| Length | About 1,085 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for BUS 495 Module 7
Robots in the Kinderzimmer: Choosing an Entry Mode for an American Science Kit Maker in Germany
Student Name
Business Administration Program, Aspen University
BUS 495: International Business
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Robots in the Kinderzimmer: Choosing an Entry Mode for an American Science Kit Maker in Germany
BrightBuild Labs, a composite company in Minneapolis, designs science, engineering and robotics kits for children aged eight to fourteen. Its kits, which range from solar cars to programmable robots, sell for $35 to $120 through American toy stores, museum shops and its own website, producing about $11 million in revenue a year. The company has received a growing number of orders from Germany through its website and interest from German teachers who found its free lesson plans. Germany is the largest toy market in Europe, has a strong tradition of educational play and engineering, and offers a natural base for later expansion in neighboring countries. The founders want to know how to enter it. This paper compares five entry modes and recommends one.
How Firms Enter Foreign Markets
Root (1994) organized entry modes into three families. Export modes ship products made at home, either directly to customers or through foreign agents and distributors. Contractual modes transfer knowledge or rights, as in licensing and franchising. Investment modes place the firm's own capital abroad, through joint ventures or wholly owned subsidiaries. Moving from exports toward investment generally increases the firm's control over marketing and quality, but also its cost, its risk and the difficulty of leaving if the market disappoints.
Johanson and Vahlne (1977) observed that firms tend to internationalize gradually. They described a process in which knowledge about a foreign market, gained through experience, reduces uncertainty and leads to greater commitment, so that firms often begin with exports through intermediaries and move to their own sales units later. Firms also tend to start with markets that are close in psychic distance, meaning differences in language, culture and business practice. Anderson and Gatignon (1986) took a different angle, arguing that the choice of entry mode is a choice of how much control to hold. Control brings higher returns and protects valuable know-how, but it requires resource commitment and risk. Firms should seek more control when their products depend on specialized knowledge that partners could misuse and less when the market is uncertain.
What a Toy Seller Must Meet
Selling toys in Germany means meeting European Union toy safety rules, under which products must satisfy safety requirements for mechanical, chemical, electrical and other hazards, carry CE marking and be supported by technical documentation and a declaration of conformity. BrightBuild's robot kits include batteries, motors and circuit boards, adding requirements for electrical equipment, batteries and waste electronics. Germany's Packaging Act also requires firms selling packaged goods in Germany to be listed in the national packaging register, known as LUCID, and to pay into a scheme that collects and recycles their packaging. Whoever places the product on the market carries these obligations, so the entry mode determines whether BrightBuild or a partner handles them.
The Five Options
Online exporting would continue shipping orders from Minneapolis through the company's website and a European online marketplace. It is cheap and keeps full control of the brand, but shipping costs and delivery times hurt sales, and BrightBuild would still have to meet the regulatory obligations itself.
A distributor that specializes in educational toys would buy kits in bulk, handle compliance as the importer, sell to toy shops and schools and provide German-language customer service. BrightBuild would give up some margin and some control over pricing and presentation.
Licensing would allow a German toy manufacturer to make and sell kits under BrightBuild's designs and brand in exchange for royalties. It requires almost no investment but surrenders control over quality and risks teaching an established company how to compete.
A joint venture with a German educational publisher would combine BrightBuild's kits with the partner's access to schools and its knowledge of the curriculum. It shares cost and risk but requires agreement on strategy and profits.
A wholly owned subsidiary would give BrightBuild full control, with its own warehouse, staff and school sales team, but would cost about $1.8 million over three years before reaching break-even.
Comparing the Modes
The table scores each mode from 1, poor, to 5, strong, on five criteria. Weights reflect the founders' priorities: control over the brand and lesson materials matters most, followed by limiting investment while the market is unproven.
Online exporting scores highest on paper, but the score hides its weakness: it barely reaches schools and toy shops, which account for most German sales of educational toys, and it teaches the company little about the market. The specialist distributor scores nearly as well while providing reach and learning, which the Uppsala model treats as the foundation for later commitment.
| Mode | Control, weight 30% | Low investment, 25% | Speed to market, 15% | Low risk, 15% | Learning about the market, 15% | Weighted score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online exporting | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4.10 |
| Specialist distributor | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3.85 |
| Licensing | 1 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2.60 |
| Joint venture with a publisher | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2.95 |
| Wholly owned subsidiary | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3.20 |
Recommendation
BrightBuild should enter Germany through a specialist distributor of educational toys, under a three-year contract that covers Germany and Austria. The contract should require the distributor to act as importer for compliance purposes, follow BrightBuild's brand guidelines, translate lesson plans with BrightBuild's approval and share sales data by product and channel each month. BrightBuild should keep its website selling directly to German customers at the same retail prices so that it maintains a direct relationship and its own data. Licensing should be rejected because the kits' value lies in their designs and lesson materials, the kind of specialized knowledge that Anderson and Gatignon argue a firm should keep under its control.
The plan should include triggers for deeper commitment. If German sales exceed $1.5 million a year for two consecutive years, or if schools become a major channel requiring curriculum alignment, BrightBuild should consider a small subsidiary or a joint venture with a publisher. If sales fall below $300,000 in the second year, the company should return to online exporting and reconsider the market.
Conclusion
Germany offers BrightBuild a large, receptive market, but the company is small and the market unproven. The Uppsala model suggests starting with a mode that builds knowledge at low commitment, and the control-based view warns against handing over the designs that make the kits valuable. A specialist distributor, combined with continued online sales and clear triggers for later expansion, balances those lessons and gives BrightBuild a path from first sales to a lasting presence.
References
Anderson, E., & Gatignon, H. (1986). Modes of foreign entry: A transaction cost analysis and propositions. Journal of International Business Studies, 17(3), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490432
Johanson, J., & Vahlne, J.-E. (1977). The internationalization process of the firm: A model of knowledge development and increasing foreign market commitments. Journal of International Business Studies, 8(1), 23-32. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490676
Root, F. R. (1994). Entry strategies for international markets (Rev. ed.). Lexington Books.
BUS 495 Module 7 instructions, in plain terms
Aspen's catalog states that BUS 495 covers choosing whether and how to enter a foreign market, from exporting to joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries, so a module paper usually asks for an entry mode recommendation. The Module 7 instructions in your classroom set the format; this example treats them as a comparison of modes for one firm and one country. Describe the company's resources and goals and why the country is attractive. Explain the entry modes and the trade-offs among control, cost and risk, using recognized theory. Identify regulations or barriers that affect the choice. Compare the realistic modes on stated criteria, with weights if you can justify them. Recommend a mode and explain why the alternatives are weaker. Include a plan for how the firm's commitment could grow or change as it learns.
Inside the BUS 495 Module 7 example
The opening introduces BrightBuild Labs, its $11 million in U.S. sales and its reasons for choosing Germany. Johanson and Vahlne's Uppsala model describes incremental commitment driven by learning and psychic distance. Anderson and Gatignon's Journal of International Business Studies article frames entry modes as choices about control. Root's book on entry strategies supplies the range of modes. A section on regulation covers the EU toy safety requirements, CE marking, battery and electronics rules for robot kits and registration in Germany's packaging register. A five-row table scores each mode on control, investment, speed, risk and learning, with weights. The recommendation chooses an educational toy distributor with a three-year contract, sets triggers for opening a subsidiary and explains why licensing was rejected.
Where the marks sit in the BUS 495 Module 7 rubric
An entry mode recommendation is scored on how well the student understands the modes, how theory is used, how much the paper knows about the particular country, how logical the comparison is and how workable the advice is. This example explains each mode before comparing them, and it connects the comparison to two theories rather than to intuition. Johanson and Vahlne's Journal of International Business Studies article, Anderson and Gatignon's article in the same journal and Root's text are each used for a distinct purpose. Country specifics, including regulations a toy seller must meet, show research beyond general advice. The weighted table lets a grader trace how the recommendation was reached and check whether different weights would change it. A staged plan with measurable triggers shows that the student understands entry as a process rather than a single decision.
BUS 495 Module 7 help from the desk
The most common weakness in Module 7 papers is recommending a mode without comparing it to the alternatives. Show at least three options and explain why the others were rejected. Another is ignoring the company's own resources; a small firm may not be able to fund a subsidiary however attractive control seems. Research the country's specific barriers, such as product standards, licensing or packaging rules, and name the agencies involved. If you use a scoring table, explain your weights, since they shape the result. Consider how the firm will learn from its first step and when it would change modes. Be careful with licensing, which can create a future competitor if technology or brand rights are not protected. Finally, connect the recommendation back to the company's goals in the market, such as speed, control or profit.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
More BUS 495 and Business Administration sample papers
- BUS 495 Module 1: Globalization and Distance
- BUS 495 Module 2: Culture and Business
- BUS 495 Module 3: Country Risk Analysis
- BUS 495 Module 4: Trade and Investment
- BUS 495 Module 5: Exchange Rate Exposure
- BUS 495 Module 6: Global Strategy
- BUS 495 Module 8: Managing Across Borders
- BUS 320 Module 2: Environment and Research
- BUS 210 Module 5: Human Resources Plan
- BUS 499 Module 1: Topic and Proposal
- BUS 484 Module 1: Entrepreneurs and the Economy
BUS 495 Module 7 questions, answered
What does BUS 495 Module 7 usually ask for?
Aspen's BUS 495 covers entering foreign markets in this module, so a paper recommending an entry mode for a company and country, with alternatives compared, is typical. Check your classroom prompt.
What are the main foreign market entry modes?
Exporting directly or through intermediaries, licensing, franchising, joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries, which rise in control, cost and risk.
What is the Uppsala model?
Johanson and Vahlne's description of internationalization as a gradual process in which firms increase commitment to foreign markets as they gain knowledge, often starting with closer markets.
Where can I find a free BUS 495 Module 7 sample paper?
The full recommendation is above: a children's science kit maker entering Germany, with five modes compared in a weighted table, regulatory requirements and a staged plan.
Why might a company avoid licensing?
Licensing is cheap and fast, but the firm gives up control over quality and marketing and may teach a partner enough to become a competitor.