turnkey project. In a turnkey project, an independent contractor is hired by the company to oversee all of the preparation for entering a foreign market. Once the preparation is complete and the end of the contract is reached, the plant is turned over to the company fully ready for operation. Licensing and franchising are two additional entry modes that are similar in operation. Licensing allows a licensor to grant the rights to an intangible property to the licensee for a specified period of time for a royalty fee. Franchising, on the other hand, is a specialized form of licensing in which the "franchisor" sells the intangible property to the franchisee, and also requires the franchisee operate as dictated by the franchisor. Lastly, a joint venture and wholly owned subsidiary are two more entry modes in international business. A joint venture is when a firm created is jointly owned by two or more companies (Most joint venture are 50-50 partnerships). This is in contrast with a wholly owned subsidiary, when a firm owns 100 percent of the stock of a company in a foreign country because it has either set up a new operation or acquires an established firm in that country. Types of operations Exports and import Merchandise exports: goods exportednot including services. Merchandise imports: The physical good or product that is imported into the respective country. Countries import products or goods that their country lacks in. An example of this is that Colombia must import cars since there is no Colombian car company. Service exports: , the fastest growing export sector. The majority of the companies create a product that requires installation, repairs, and troubleshooting, Service exports is simply a resident of one country providing a service to another country. A cloud software platform used by people or companies outside the home country. "Tourism and transportation, service performance, asset use". Exports and Imports of products, goods or services are usually a country's most important international economic transactions. Top imports and exports in the world Data is from the CIA World Factbook, compiled in 2017: Choice of entry mode in international business Strategic variables affect the choice of entry mode for multinational corporation expansion beyond their domestic markets. These variables are global concentration, global synergies, and global strategic motivations of MNC. Global concentration: many MNEs share and overlap markets with a limited number of other corporations in the same industry.