We merge German balance‐of‐payments and foreign‐affiliate‐trade statistics to obtain data about trade in commercial services at the firm level. We use these data to study export market participation and the choice of export mode: cross‐border versus foreign affiliate sales. We find that for firms in our sample productivity is both a statistically significant and economically important determinant of the export participation and export mode choice. We also identify the role of industry‐ and country‐specific determinants.