DETERMINANTS OF THE CHOICE OF COMBINED MODES FOR FOREIGN MARKET ENTRY: THE CASE OF KOREAN FIRMS ENTERING INTO UZBEKISTAN

The choice of an entry mode is one of the most critical decisions for firms expanding abroad. There are a variety of foreign market entry modes such as exporting, licensing, and foreign direct investment. While many firms use only one single mode, others frequently employ multiple different combined modes for a foreign entry simultaneously. Mode combination can be an effective way to achieve better performance in foreign operation because the different modes in a combination package complement each other. The topic of mode combination, however, has not yet been extensively studied theoretically and empirically. In this paper, we propose six hypotheses to examine factors affecting firms' choice between a single mode and a combined mode and test them on questionnaire survey data regarding Korean manufacturing firms' recent entry into Uzbekistan.