Japan's weather pattern is opposite to Australia and New Zealand, which could smoothen the sales of seasonal items through out the year.

A. Essay Structure
MINTO approach.

B. Case study company background :
Kathmandu (https://www.kathmandu.com.au/), It is the brand under the Australian listed company, KMD Brands (https://www.kmdbrands.com/). All the brand information would be available on websites and the annual report/announcements of KMD Brands (https://www.kmdbrands.com/investor-centre). Please refer to the company websites and annual report/presentation in the past three years for reference.

C. Mission:
Currently Kathmandu serves Australia and New Zealand market and face decrease of sales due to the economic uncertainty of Australia and New Zealand. Therefore, they plan to move to the Japan market for new business development, both retail and online e-commerce

D.. Reasons on the choice of new market (Japan)
D1. Japan has the strong culture on outdoor activities all over the year (e.g: water sports in summer, camping and hiking in autumn and skiing/snowboarding in winter).
D2. Japan’s weather pattern is opposite to Australia and New Zealand, which could smoothen the sales of seasonal items through out the year.
D3. Japan has one of the largest population in Asia while close to the company headquarter (Australia and New Zealand) and the manufacture facilities in Asia (e.g.: China) for better logistics arrangement

E. Essay Structure
E1. Main Body: 2000-2200 words,
E2. Appendix Table: The whole CAGE analysis (500 words), especially to indicator the difference between Japan and Australia/New Zealand in terms of Cultural Distance, Administrative Distance, Geographic Distance, Economic Distance)

F. Essay Writing Style
The essay has to be in MINTO approach with 5 paragraphs

F1. Introduction (150-200 words): Overview of company background and the problem to be solved

F2. Arguments (Total 1500-1800 words): Three separate tailor made arguments has to be constructed in response to the challenges Kathmandu’s new business plan in Japan (Please refer to 3.1-3.3 for the reference on tackling the challenges)

F2.1 Specific Opportunities and Risks (500-600 words): Pick up 1-2 key opportunities and 1-2 key risks which are drawn from the CAGE analysis in Appendix and demonstrate the risk and reward (opportunities) compared to original market (Australian and New Zealand). .

F2.2 International Entry Mode Selection (500-600 words): Identify the organisation’s international strategy (Transnational strategy) using Bartlett & Ghoshal’s typology and evaluate viable option(s) for internationally growing their core business in a distant new market.

F2.3 Ethical and cultural issues (500-600 words): Elaborate on the main ethical and cross-cultural challenges that need to be mitigated for successfully entering the identified new market by applying appropriate ethical theories

Remark: Other theories suggested to be applied throughout the essay main body, include:
Dunning’s eclectic paradigm, Dunning–Kruger Effect, Porter’s value chain