Modes of market entry and motives for British and Chinese companies doing business in Kenya

Abstract

Going to the new target market companies needs to choose the right and most suitable entry mode in order to successful .There are various factors that affect entry modes in new foreign markets, and companies should do a thorough evaluation in order to be aware of these factors before they venture there. For instance choosing insufficient or wrong entry mode will have a greater impact to the company which can lead to fi-nancial losses.

The purpose of this study was to investigate which factors affect the market entry modes of Chinese and British companies doing business in Kenya. Further these studies investigated the motive behind internationalization of these companies, the challenges they faced when they entered the Kenyan market and the entry mode they used to enter the Kenyan market.

A quantitative approach was used where the information was gathered from the re-spondents from British and Chinese companies through web-survey.

The study findings from the British and Chinese companies doing businesses in Kenya suggest that the best entry mode recommended to use to enter the Kenya market is the use of foreign direct investment. Most companies favored this entry mode because incentives are provided by the Kenyan government for those companies who use this type of entry mode, there low political interference.