Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Export performance'

Identifying the antecedents of export performance is critical for researchers, due to the many benefits of exporting for firms and nations. Many researchers have, thus, devoted their research efforts to identifying export performance antecedents. Export marketing adaptation and firm level export market orientation (or EMO) have emerged as two critical export performance predictors. However, two important research questions remain unexamined. The first is whether firms ought to pursue heterogeneous levels of marketing adaptation across ventures in order to boost venture performance, and whether the answer to this question is contingent upon internal firm resources which support adaptation (namely EMO) and upon the environments faced across ventures. The second question concerns what the total amount (i.e. quantity) of export marketing adaptation firms should undertake in order to boost firm export performance is, and whether the answer to this question depends on internal firm resources supporting adaptation (more specifically, EMO) and on the overall export environments faced by firms. Underpinned by a contingent approach to the study of business performance, this study set out to answer to such questions, via developing and testing two conceptual models. The models were tested using data collected from British exporting companies. The findings of the first model indicate that marketing adaptation across ventures becomes increasingly beneficial for venture performance (directly in the case of sales performance and indirectly in the case of profit performance) as EMO rises and as the levels of environmental differences across ventures increase. Results of the second model suggest that, under greater levels of EMO, firm export sales performance attains its highest values when the firm practices either very low or very high levels of marketing adaptation quantity. Also, under greater levels of EMO, firm export sales performance is increasingly reduced the more the firm deviates from extreme (low/high) marketing adaptation quantities. Additionally, as the firm s export environments become more heterogeneous, the firm benefits increasingly more from pursuing either very low or very high marketing adaptation quantity levels (with sales performance being maximized when the firm pursues very high levels of marketing adaptation quantity), and the reductions in firm export sales performance accruing from undertaking intermediate marleting adaptation quantity levels are increasingly higher. Findings also suggest that enhancing marketing adaptation quantity is beneficial for firm export profit performance up to an optimal point. The returns brought by additional increments in marketing adaptation quantity are increasingly smaller as marketing adaptation quantity increases. Beyond an optimal point, additional increments in marketing adaptation quantity diminish firm export profit performance. The marketing adaptation quantity-firm export profit performance link was not found to be moderated directly neither by EMO nor by firm export environmental differences. EMO was found to have a positive impact on firm export sales and profit performance.

Predicting export performance remains an important issue at the heart of export research and management. This is because of the primary role of exporting to ensuring the profitability, growth and survival of firms. Given these and other benefits that firms stand to gain (and the challenges that firms face) for their active engagement in exporting, scholars have exerted efforts into explaining the causes of export success. Export marketing strategy, firm characteristics, capabilities and firms' orientations towards export markets are some the variables studied. Firms' entrepreneurial orientation towards export markets has been one important variable that has captured the attention of researchers. This study is an attempt to introduce an export context-specific entrepreneurial-oriented behaviour (or export EOB) to the study of antecedents of export performance. A theoretical model involving the relationship between export EOB (and its dimensions) and export performance is, therefore, developed and empirically tested using data from 212 exporting organisations. Findings suggest that firms' overall level of export EOB is a major driver of export success. The study further establishes that a high level of market-oriented behaviour in exporting organisations can help firms to derive stronger benefits from their entrepreneurial activities. At the specific level of the export EOB components, results suggest that development of novel product innovations, high export risk-taking, and strong proactive and competitively aggressive behaviours can help exporting organisations to improve their performance. However, product innovation intensity and autonomy are negatively related to export performance, suggesting that high levels of these two behaviours might lead to poor export performance. Nevertheless, further analysis shows that the negative association between product innovation intensity and export performance becomes positive when moderated by product innovation novelty. In addition, the study shows that autonomy has indirect positive association with export performance through interaction with proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness. In other words, autonomy facilitates the effectiveness of proactive and competitive aggressive behaviours. Further analyses of moderating effect relationships reveal mixed results. Specifically, the study finds that export market orientation positively moderates the link between production innovation intensity and export performance. In addition, export customer dynamism positively moderates the association of product innovation novelty and risk-taking with export performance. On the contrary, export customer dynamism negatively moderates the link between product innovation intensity and export performance. Theoretical, export managerial and policy implications of these findings are discussed and useful areas for future research are proposed.

As export competition becomes more intense and export success vital for survival (Katsikeas, 1994), so the effective processing and use of information regarding the international environment becomes a critical prerequisite for gaining competitive advantage (Leonidou and Theodosiou, 2004). Symbolic use of information is one type of information use, which although relatively underexplored to date, may be the most prevalent form of information use within organisations – especially in an export setting (Beyer and Trice, 1982). Symbolic use occurs when information is used for purposes other than the ones which led to its collection (Menon and Varadarajan, 1992). Symbolic use of information has been conceptualised as a multi-dimensional construct encompassing various dimensions (Vyas and Souchon, 2003). Examples include “exporters that engage in distorting market research findings, taking conclusions out of context, disclosing only the findings that confirm an executive‟s predetermined position or consciously ignoring information” (Toften and Olsen, 2004, p. 106). Symbolic use can also legitimate decisions reached on the basis of intuition or managerial assumptions (Vyas and Souchon, 2003). Although conceptual propositions of the potential relationship between each of the symbolic use dimensions and performance exist (Vyas and Souchon 2003), no empirical research has yet been undertaken. As a result, little is known about how and why symbolic use of export information may affect export performance, and under what circumstances. Furthermore, reliable and valid measures for each one of the symbolic use dimensions are absent in the literature. The purpose of this thesis is to fill in these research gaps. In so doing, a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods is employed. The exploratory phase takes the form of in depth interviews with export decision makers in the UK. The data collected in this exploratory phase are analysed through the use of within-case and cross-case displays as per Miles and Huberman (1994) and are used not just for hypothesis development, but also to identify potential outcomes of using information symbolically in specific ways and to create pools of items for the development of measures of symbolic use. (Continues...).

The aim of this thesis is to explore how firms can make better use of channel selections to create value from their organisational capabilities, such as product development capabilities (PDC), in export operations by considering the role of resource-based factors such as entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and institutional factors such as cultural-cognitive institutional distance (CCID). Through a systematic review of the contemporary empirical studies on export channel selection, it is found that although previous studies have made advancements in improving our understanding of export channel selection using a variety of theoretical bases, this domain is still immature, in that significant theoretical and methodological gaps exist. Based on this review, the author then carries out an empirical study to explore PDC as the determinant of export channel selection and export performance to address the gaps in current export channel research, integrating resource-based view and institutional theory. Using the data collected from multiple respondents of 294 Chinese export firms, the study finds that firms with higher levels of PDC are more likely to select the hierarchical channel. In addition, the possession of EO negatively moderates the propensity of high PDC-firms to select the hierarchical channel. The study has also found that the moderating effect of EO on PDC-channel selection becomes stronger when the CCID between the home and export market increases, and that the alignment between PDC, EO, CCID, and channel selection can help firms to achieve better export performance. This thesis contributes to the literature by extending the application of RBV and institutional theory in export channel selection, and adds knowledge to the roles of PDC, EO, and CCID in helping firms to achieve better performance in export markets by means of export channel selection.

Exporters generally agree that, in spite of communication technology, visiting foreign markets remains a necessity to acquire relevant information and to expand overseas business. For TJK exporters, these visits can be made either on an individual basis or by joining collective overseas trade missions organised by Chambers of Commerce or Trade Associations. Trade missions are part of the subsidised Export Promotion Programmes offered by the UK government to encourage SMEs to expand into foreign markets. Due to their small size, their lack of resources, and their managerial style, SMEs need external assistance to overcome the risks of internationalisation. This thesis focuses on the evaluation of a specific Export Promotion Programme, the overseas trade missions organised primarily for SMEs by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The present research investigates more specifically the factors that have an impact on trade mission outcomes and the influence on export performance of the acquisition of experiential knowledge through trade mission participation. This research intends to fill the gap that exists in the export literature regarding the evaluation of overseas trade missions. Trade missions have been used by exporting SMEs to facilitate their entries into remote markets. Little knowledge is available on the contribution of trade mission participation to SMEs' export performance or on the factors that are most likely to influence trade mission outcomes. In light of an increasing number of governments' trade and budget deficits and the importance of the SMEs sector in a country's economy, there is a need for a systematic evaluation of government subsidised programmes and their influence on subsequent trade patterns. One hundred and ninety SMEs participating in twelve trade missions organised by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry were surveyed in 1996 and 1997, using a longitudinal design. The executives participating in the trade missions received a first questionnaire upon their return from the visits and a second one six months later to assess changes in behaviour and trade patterns as well as knowledge acquired during the period. The findings show that SMEs that follow a diversification export strategy and that acquire specific knowledge about the targeted markets prior to the trade missions are more likely to generate outcomes during the trade missions. This study also demonstrates that trade mission participation is instrumental in gaining a thorough understanding of overseas markets and in contributing positively to the relationship building process between foreign buyers and sellers. Following the trade missions, generation of incremental sales in the targeted markets is facilitated by keeping in close contact with customers and agents and by paying them regular visits. These findings point to the fact that successful exporting SMEs are characterised by being learning organisations where the acquisition and transfer of knowledge is facilitated within the firms themselves and between firms which are part of their business network. SMEs' export-orientation is enhanced by cross-cultural awareness, international negotiation, and foreign languages skills. This acquisition of export knowledge and skills could be encouraged by close cooperation between SMEs, the public sector and educational institutions. The primary contribution of this thesis is the development of a framework showing the interrelationships between firms' specific characteristics, trade mission participation, and export performance over time. The findings also provide a thorough understanding of the trade mission process, which could be used profitably by policy makers, trade mission managers, and export managers to increase their effectiveness in the design, organisation, and use of international trade promotion schemes.

This study empirically investigates the direct and indirect effects of export promotion programs (EPPs) on firm export performance. Government export promotion programs normally define the premise for successful exporting activities of the corporate sector and play a key role in stimulating international business activities of firms (Cavusgil and Michael, 1990; Marandu, 1995; Seringhaus and Rosson, 1990). While the extant literature on export performance mostly neglected EPPs as an antecedent of export performance, the literature on export promotion fails to relate it to export performance. A very few researchers in this area have focused on a direct relationship between EPPs and firm export performance, however, no study has investigated the effect of EPPs on other determinants of export performance toward establishing any indirect relation between EPPs and export performance. This study attempts to develop and test a comprehensive model of firm export performance that investigates how EPPs directly and indirectly influence firm export performance. Theoretical foundations are drawn from internationalization process and resource-based theories as frameworks for the analysis of the study. The model integrates the use of EPPs, management perception of export market environment, export knowledge, export commitment, and export strategy that influence firm export performance and develops a number of hypotheses. Export promotion programs are classified into two categories according to their similarity of purpose- "market development", and "finance and guarantee" related programs. All other variables in the model are latent and are measured by a set of observed items. The model is tested on primary data obtained from a sample survey of exporting firms drawn from three major export oriented industries in Bangladesh. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques (in AMOS 5) are used to test the validity of the overall model and the relationship between variables hypothesized in the model. A two stage process is employed whereby the construct measurements are first evaluated, followed by an evaluation of the structural relationships. Analysis of the structural relationships supports most of the hypothesized relationships. The dimensions of export promotion programs are found to positively impact overall export performance. The research findings demonstrate that the use of market development-related export promotion programs influence firm export performance directly as well as indirectly through management perception of the export market environment, export knowledge and commitment. However, finance and guarantee-related export promotion programs indirectly influence export performance through export commitment. The study provides a guideline for managers of firms suggesting how they can benefit from EPPs in improving their positive attitude towards the export market environment, building their knowledge and enhancing commitment to exporting for better success in their international operations. This study provides guidelines to policymakers in designing and targeting export promotion programs effectively. The study also contributes to the literature by examining the indirect impact of EPPs on firm export performance. Finally, the limitations of the study are considered and possible directions for further research outlined.

This study empirically investigates the direct and indirect effects of export promotion programs (EPPs) on firm export performance. Government export promotion programs normally define the premise for successful exporting activities of the corporate sector and play a key role in stimulating international business activities of firms (Cavusgil and Michael, 1990; Marandu, 1995; Seringhaus and Rosson, 1990). While the extant literature on export performance mostly neglected EPPs as an antecedent of export performance, the literature on export promotion fails to relate it to export performance. A very few researchers in this area have focused on a direct relationship between EPPs and firm export performance, however, no study has investigated the effect of EPPs on other determinants of export performance toward establishing any indirect relation between EPPs and export performance. This study attempts to develop and test a comprehensive model of firm export performance that investigates how EPPs directly and indirectly influence firm export performance. Theoretical foundations are drawn from internationalization process and resource-based theories as frameworks for the analysis of the study. The model integrates the use of EPPs, management perception of export market environment, export knowledge, export commitment, and export strategy that influence firm export performance and develops a number of hypotheses. Export promotion programs are classified into two categories according to their similarity of purpose- "market development", and "finance and guarantee" related programs. All other variables in the model are latent and are measured by a set of observed items. The model is tested on primary data obtained from a sample survey of exporting firms drawn from three major export oriented industries in Bangladesh. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques (in AMOS 5) are used to test the validity of the overall model and the relationship between variables hypothesized in the model. A two stage process is employed whereby the construct measurements are first evaluated, followed by an evaluation of the structural relationships. Analysis of the structural relationships supports most of the hypothesized relationships. The dimensions of export promotion programs are found to positively impact overall export performance. The research findings demonstrate that the use of market development-related export promotion programs influence firm export performance directly as well as indirectly through management perception of the export market environment, export knowledge and commitment. However, finance and guarantee-related export promotion programs indirectly influence export performance through export commitment. The study provides a guideline for managers of firms suggesting how they can benefit from EPPs in improving their positive attitude towards the export market environment, building their knowledge and enhancing commitment to exporting for better success in their international operations. This study provides guidelines to policymakers in designing and targeting export promotion programs effectively. The study also contributes to the literature by examining the indirect impact of EPPs on firm export performance. Finally, the limitations of the study are considered and possible directions for further research outlined.

As trade between nations has progressed, some countries have focussed their economic policies on increasing exports. In many cases, these exports have been the most significant driver behind the economic success of these nations and the resultant improvement in the welfare of their citizens. This research is needed in order to understand the extent that a country is dependent on the economic output of its trading partners to drive its export performance. This is of particular interest in the context of the current economic issues being experienced in some of the major markets of the world. The research evaluates the statistical relationship between world GDP and export performance, adjusting for different time periods and different industries. A Granger causality test was also applied in an effort to avoid the shortfalls of simple longitudinal regression tests. The sample included data from 1948 to 2010, across 11 industries in 20 countries.The research found a strong relationship between world GDP and export performance, although the results of the Granger test show that this is not a causal relationship. The diversity and complexity of a country’s industrial structure emerged as a significant theme in the research and was integrated into a model (Figure 5) that can be used by policy makers to assess their own export position according to these variables. The results of this research can assist policy makers in understanding the vulnerabilities of their export performance to global economic cycles as well as in prioritising and evaluating industrial sector development. The research highlights how, in spite of the challenges that may be experienced with regards to global economic performance, there is still a great deal of scope for policy makers to influence their own futures when it comes to export performance.
Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012.
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
unrestricted

Exporting is a critically important strategy for firms to grow, yet research in this area has tended to ignore how firms can leverage resource-based capabilities to improve export performance. Building on the resource-based view and institutional theory, the authors develop a novel perspective to explain how a firm can improve export performance by aligning its export channel with its level of market orientation capabilities, contingent on the institutional distance between home and export markets. Using a unique database of Chinese exporters, the authors find that exporters with strong market orientation capabilities prefer hierarchical export channels, while those with weak market orientation capabilities prefer hybrid channels. The analysis also indicates that the institutional distance between China and the export market moderates this relation. Moreover, the authors find that aligning export channel choice with firm-level market orientation capabilities and institutional distance yields better export performance. (authors' abstract)

This thesis documents a study of the dimensions of export market orientation associated with export performance. In particular, the research objective is to examine empirically the development and support of a corporate export market orientation and its successful implementation in Turkish clothing companies, as evidenced by successful export performance, and to investigate variations in export performance which may be related to export market orientation. In summary, this research aimed to explore the nature of market orientation in an international context by using empirical data from a sample of companies to examine some hypotheses regarding market orientation as applied to export operations in Turkish clothing industry. This aim was fulfilled by reliably and validly measuring the key constructs of export market orientation and finding statistically significant relationships between dependent and independent variables. The results of this thesis draw conclusions from an empirical investigation showing that the proposed relationship between export market orientation and export performance does exist, and in the case of Turkish clothing exporters, improving an export market orientation level is a significant contributor to the company's export performance. In order to explore the relationship between export market orientation and export performance, a two phase research design was adopted and conducted in the Turkish clothing industry. The sample for both stages were drawn from a listing of the member companies of the Turkish Textile and Apparel Exporters Association. This listing by the Association is complete and accurate because of the control which obligates exporters to register all their export actions. First, an exploratory phase was conducted in order to gain a clearer understanding of key issues. The stage 1 study was based on 103 responses received from a sample frame of 156 companies representing a 66 0/0 response rate. The primary objective of the first stage research was to develop a profile of the characteristics of the industry. Data generation was achieved through mail questionnaires and respondents were top managers of the selected companies. Second, the Cadogan, Diamantopoulos, and de Mortanges (1997) construct was used to test the hypothesis. The stage 2 study was based on 163 responses received from a sample frame of 384 companies representing a 43.47 % response rate. Data generation was achieved through mail questionnaires and respondents were again top managers of the selected companies. Results were analysed using the SPSS statistical analysis computer package. The findings, based on a sample of Turkish clothing exporters, show that the instrument developed by Cadogan, Diamantopoulos, and de Mortanges (1997) is reliable and exhibits content and convergent validity. Regression analysis found a significant effect of the level of export market orientation on dimensions of export performance. The positive relationship between export market orientation and dimensions of export performance indicated that a high level of export market orientation leads to a higher level of export performance and a low level of export market orientation produce a lower level of export performance. The research hypotheses are supported by the results of the study. The multidimensional operationalisation of export market orientation allowed the testing of the relationship between the dimensions of export market orientation with dimensions of export performance. Generally, there is a strong relationship between the dimensions of export market orientation and dimensions of export performance.

This paper provides an economic assessment of export credit guarantee commitments by the Austrian export credit agency, using firm-level data on a cross-section of 178 Austrian exporting firms for the year 2008. In a first step, we estimate the relative importance of various determinants of export guarantee usage. Results suggest that the most crucial determinants are: firm size, whether or not the firm is part of a multinational enterprise, exposure to revenue risk, and R&D intensity. In a second step, we investigate the effects of export guarantees on export performance. Identification is achieved by using as instruments the exogenous determinants of export guarantee usage identified in the first step. We find that there are economically and statistically significant effects of export credit guarantee usage on firm-specific export performance ranging from some 80 to 100 percent compared with the control group of non-users.

The increasing interdependence of economies and the recent economic crisis has considerably strengthened the importance of exporting. It is recognised as promoting the survivability of companies as they are better able to diversify risks and generate multiple income streams. Thus, investigation of the determinants of export performance has become particularly important. Marketing decision-making has been identified as one of the core drivers of firms success. It is a process under the direct control of managers where significant changes can be introduced to improve it, and by extension, the ability to achieve successful outcomes. However, little is known about how export marketing decisions are made and what key decision-making approaches managers rely on to drive their performance. A literature review that span multiple disciplines (e.g. strategic management, organisation studies, marketing) helped to disentangle two key decision-making approaches, namely planning and improvisation. This is the first study examining the impact of both of these simultaneously on a firm s export performance. While planning is considered to be a unidimensional construct, improvisation is comprised of three facets: spontaneity, creativity and action-orientation. Based on decision theory, this research was conducted in two phases. The literature review informed phase 1: a qualitative exploratory study among export managers in the UK. A conceptual model was then derived from the results and tested in phase 2 through quantitative analysis utilising data generated from 200 respondent companies via a self-reported online questionnaires and the application of structural equation modelling. The results indicated that export customer performance was negatively affected by planning and positively influenced by action-orientation, whilst export financial performance was found to benefit from planning. All decision-making approaches (planning, spontaneity, creativity and action-orientation) were found to be positively related to responsiveness to environmental changes. Using moderator analysis, important insights were uncovered into combining decision-making approaches. The export function was found to benefit from a combination of planning and action-orientation, whereas spontaneity and creativity while having separate positive effects are not well combined with planning, producing negative moderation effects.

This dissertation aims to present an integrated approach to measuring and linking the variables involved in the 'export marketing standardisation-export performance' phenomenon. Drawing on the literature and primary data (exploratory study, main survey and follow-up interviews), twenty-three hypotheses are developed, simultaneously tested and discussed. Due to the magnitude of the valid sample (519 export market ventures), it was possible to use Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with Weighted Least Squares (WLS) (Curran et al., 1996). At the measurement level, this thesis tests previous measures and presents new constructs for the key elements discussed in the literature. Fourteen constructs emerged across the following topics: degree of marketing programme standardisation, export performance, and internal and external forces. At the causality level, this research study suggests that both export marketing standardisation and export performance are simultaneously affected by internal and external forces. These simultaneous relationships have never been incorporated by past empirical research. More importantly, findings suggest that past performance plays a crucial role in the determination of current export marketing strategy. Export performance must be seen not only as an outcome, as traditionally discussed in the literature, but also as an antecedent of export marketing strategy. Future investigations are encouraged to incorporate these new research directions in the study of the 'export marketing strategy — export performance' relationship. Additional guidelines are provided to stimulate future discussion and research in the field. The literature and the findings are also used to generate a number of implications for managers and public policy makers.

Face à la baisse continue de la consommation de vin dans les principaux pays européens traditionnellement vinicoles et aux opportunités de croissance de consommation sur les nouveaux marchés, l’avenir de nos vins français se joue essentiellement à l’export. L’export apparait donc non pas comme une option stratégique mais comme une nécessité pour nos entreprises vitivinicoles françaises. Face à cet enjeu, l’objectif de notre travail de recherche a été de déterminer les politiques adéquates à l’export afin de comprendre dans quelle mesure l’entreprise vitivinicole française était performante à l’export. Les résultats contradictoires des recherches antérieures étudiant l’impact des éléments de politique export (produit, marché et d’exportation) sur la performance export nous ont orienté vers une approche contingente et le défi de notre travail de recherche a été de démontrer théoriquement et empiriquement qu’il n’existe pas de politique export adéquate mais plusieurs en fonction de la stratégie à l’export de l’entreprise(stratégie de marque, de terroir et prix volume), résultant des ressources uniques de l’entreprise d’après la théorie basée sur les ressources. Spécialement réalisées pour ce travail de recherche, une étude quantitative auprès de 120 entreprises vitivinicoles françaises ainsi qu’une étude qualitative auprès de 50 entreprises vitivinicoles nous ont permis de valider empiriquement l’effet modérateur de l’avantage concurrentiel à l’export de l’entreprise sur la relation entre la politique et la performance export
Faced with the continuing decline in wine consumption in the main European countries and growth opportunities in new markets, the future of French wines mainly relies on exports Export therefore does not appear as a strategic option but as a necessity for French wine companies. Faced with this challenge, the objective of our research was to determine the appropriate (or suitable) export policies in order to understand how the French wine business could achieve export performance. The conflicting results of previous research examining the impact of the export policy on export performance components have guided us to a contingent approach and the challenge of our research has been to demonstrate theoretically and empirically that there is not only one adequate export policy but several ones depending on company export strategy resulting from the its unique set of resources, according to the resource-based view. Specially carried out for this research, a quantitative study on 120 French wine businesses and a qualitative study on 50 wine businesses have enabled us to empirically validate the moderating effect of export strategy on the relationship between export policy and export performance

The importance of export performance measurement has long been acknowledged in the literature and various conceptualisations of export-related behaviours have been linked to performance variables. From a research perspective, such emphasis on performance aims to explain why some firms are more successful than others in the export front and seeks to develop empirically-based guidelines on how exporters could perform better than they do. From a business perspective, sound measurement of export performance is essential for managers to be able to evaluate the impact of their decision making and therefore assess the extent to which their firms' export objectives have been attained.

Certains pays se sont historiquement développés en s'ouvrant au commerce et en adoptant une stratégie de croissance tirée par les exportations manufacturières. Le commerce promeut l'allocation efficace des ressources suivant l'avantage comparatif, les importations favorisant les transferts technologiques et la croissance de la productivité, alors que les exportations jouent un rôle-clé en soutenant la balance des paiements et les efforts de mobilisation des recettes domestiques. En stimulant la croissance, le commerce offre la possibilité de réduire la pauvreté et d'améliorer les conditions de vie des populations. En se fondant sur le cas du Cambodge où l'industrie du textile et de l'habillement fournit la majorité des emplois manufacturiers et représente l'essentiel des exportations du pays, le Chapitre 2 montre que l'ouverture commerciale à travers les exportations manufacturières permet d'améliorer le bien-être des ménages. Nous utilisons la méthode d'appariement par score de propension pour montrer que le secteur textile améliore le bien-être des ménages faisant partie des 40 pourcent les plus pauvres en augmentant leur consommation, l'accumulation d'actifs et la part des enfants allant à l'école, ainsi qu'en réduisant l'insécurité alimentaire et l'incidence et l'ampleur de la pauvreté. L'application de la méthode des variables instrumentales indique également que les transferts de migrants travaillant dans le secteur textile permettent de relâcher la contrainte budgétaire des ménages récipiendaires et d'augmenter les dépenses d'éducation, de santé et les investissements agricoles propices à la hausse de la productivité. Le Chapitre 3 adopte une approche macroéconomique et explore les déterminants d'épisodes de croissance forte et soutenue des exportations. Il en ressort que la qualité des institutions appuyée par la stabilité macroéconomique, la dépréciation du taux de change, la diversification des exportations, la participation aux chaînes de valeur mondiales et les réformes agricoles orientées vers le marché sont sources d'accélérations des exportations. L'accroissement de la concurrence sur le marché des industries de réseau et la levée des restrictions aux mouvements de capitaux stimulent surtout les exportations de services, alors que les flux d'investissements directs étrangers favorisent les accélérations des exportations de biens. L'application de la méthode du contrôle synthétique aux cas illustratifs du Brésil et du Pérou révèle que les accélérations des exportations sont suivies par une croissance du PIB par tête réel et une baisse du chômage et des inégalités de revenu. Les résultats du chapitre indiquent une complémentarité entre les biens et les services et suggèrent que l'abaissement des barrières au commerce des services serait également favorable à celui des biens. Le Chapitre 4 quantifie une nouvelle source de barrières au commerce liée au temps de traitement des importations en douanes. L'imprévisibilité des délais d'attente liés au dédouanement des marchandises importées entache la fiabilité de la chaîne d'approvisionnement et affecte la performance à l'export des firmes importatrices de biens intermédiaires. En utilisant l'estimateur Poisson du pseudo maximum de vraisemblance, nous trouvons que l'incertitude liée aux délais de traitement en douanes des biens intermédiaires importés n'impacte ni le taux d'entrée, ni le taux de sortie des firmes manufacturières, mais se traduit par une réduction des taux de survie des nouveaux exportateurs. Cet effet s'avère hétérogène à travers les industries, croît avec le temps en raison de la dégradation de la réputation des exportateurs et semble tiré par le commerce Sud-Nord, sans doute parce que les acheteurs dans les pays développés sont plus sensibles au temps. Il est également atténué par les coûts irrécupérables d'entrée sur les marchés
Historical evidence shows that countries can successfully develop by opening up to trade and pursuing manufacturing export-led strategies. Trade promotes efficient allocation of resources according to comparative advantage, with imports acting as a vehicle for technology transfers and productivity growth while exports are key to relaxing balance-of-payments constraints and supporting domestic revenue mobilization efforts. By spurring growth, trade has the potential of alleviating poverty and delivering better livelihoods. Drawing on the case of Cambodia where the garment industry provides the bulk of manufacturing jobs and accounts for the lion's share of the export bundle, Chapter 2 provides micro evidence of the welfare-enhancing potential of trade openness through manufacturing exports. It relies on propensity score matching estimators to show that the textile and apparel sector enhances the welfare of households in the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution, boosting consumption, asset ownership and the proportion of children attending school, while curbing exposure to food insecurity and lowering the incidence and depth of poverty. Based on instrumental variables, we also show that remittances from the export-oriented garment industry relax household budget constraints, increasing expenditures in education, health and productivity-raising investments in agriculture. Chapter 3 adopts a macro approach to investigate the determinants of episodes of strong and sustained export growth. Institutional quality underpinned by macroeconomic stability, a depreciated exchange rate, export diversification, global value chain participation and market-oriented agricultural reforms show up as strong predictors of export takeoffs. Lowering barriers to competition in network industries and lifting capital movement restrictions mainly bolster services exports, while foreign direct investment inflows are conducive to goods export accelerations. Applying the synthetic control method to the illustrative cases of Brazil and Peru yields evidence of higher real GDP per capita and lower unemployment and income inequality in the years following the export surge. Our results point to significant complementarities between goods and services, and suggest that lowering barriers to trade in services is likely to support trade in goods. Chapter 4 quantifies a new source of domestic trade costs related to import processing times at the border that generate supply chain unreliability by exposing importing firms to unexpected delays in the provision of critical inputs, ultimately undermining their export performance. Using the Poisson-pseudo-maximum-likelihood estimator, we find that uncertainty in the time required to clear imported inputs through Customs impacts neither the entry nor the exit rate of manufacturing firms, but translates into lower survival rates for new exporters. This effect is heterogeneous across export industries, grows larger over time owing to rising reputational costs to input-importing exporters, and is mainly driven by South-North trade, possibly reflecting the time-sensitivity of buyers in developed countries. It is also attenuated by sunk costs of entry in foreign markets

La question de la performance des entreprises à l'exportation est une composante importante de l’ensemble des questions de recherche possibles tenant à l’exportation. Les facteurs associés au succès à l'exportation sont nombreux et complexes, comme ceux du pays, de l'entreprise, de la gestion, du niveau culturel, etc. ; ils gravitent autour de trois grands axes que sont les facteurs organisationnels, environnementaux et de gestion (Leonidou et al. 2002). La présente recherche vise à déterminer comment les performances à l'exportation sont affectées par les facteurs environnementaux, organisationnels et managériaux, en particulier la distance psychique et culturelle, la gestion des relations, les voyages d'affaires internationaux, les capacités financières des entreprises et les capacités complémentaires. Car la manière dont les entreprises peuvent exporter avec succès vers des pays lointains n'est encore pas totalement comprise (Lages et al., 2009). Le fonctionnement des relations avec les pays lointains reste étonnamment sous-examiné (Griffith & Dimitrova, 2014), en particulier la distance psychique - la mesure dans laquelle les normes et les valeurs de deux pays diffèrent en raison de leurs caractéristiques nationales distinctes (Ford,1984, p. 102), lorsqu'il s'agit de l'interaction potentielle entre la distance commerciale et culturelle et les facteurs managériaux. L'autre observation est que le commerce international dépend progressivement de la transmission d'informations complexes par le biais de la communication (Cristea, 2011). Les performances des entreprises varient parce qu'elles utilisent leurs ressources de différentes manières (Shuleska et al. (2016). Les voyages d'affaires internationaux jouent un rôle très important dans les affaires d'exportation, en particulier pour le commerce du vin, car les responsables des exportations pratiquent des voyages d'affaires internationaux rituels pour rencontrer les clients potentiels à l'étranger, organiser des dégustations de vin, participer à des foires internationales du vin. Néanmoins, jusqu'à présent, nous savons très peu de choses sur l'impact de ces voyages sur les performances à l'exportation. La thèse est donc organisée comme suit: nous avons d'abord réalisé une étude bibliométrique en analysant 1344 publications de 1900 à 2019. Deuxièmement, nous avons fait un travail empirique en étudiant l'effet d'interaction de deux formes de distance psychique (commerciale et culturelle) sur la gestion des relations à l'exportation. Plus précisément, cette recherche examine le rôle modérateur de la distance culturelle dans l'effet de la distance commerciale sur différentes dimensions de la gestion des relations et des performances financières à l'exportation. Cette recherche s'appuie sur un échantillon de 174 cadres français à l'exportation à qui il a été demandé de donner leur avis sur leur relation avec leur homologue chinois dans le commerce du vin, et sur leurs performances en la matière. Troisièmement, un autre travail empirique examine l'impact des voyages d'affaires internationaux sur les performances à l'exportation en se fondant sur la théorie resource-based view (RBV) et en intégrant les facteurs organisationnels (chiffre d'affaires annuel) et le management stratégique (capacité complémentaire) dans l'analyse des exportations françaises de vin. L'étude bibliométrique et deux études empiriques révèlent des résultats significatifs et apportent de nouvelles et importantes implications théoriques et managériales
Export performance is an important research part of export study. Extensive empirical research has been carried out to identify and study the determinant factors of successful export performance. The factors associated with the three major axes of organizational, environmental, and managerial factors in the work of (Leonidou et al. 2002). The research aims to find how export performance is affected by environmental, organizational, managerial factors, especially, the psychic business distance and cultural distance, relationship management, international business travel, firms’ financial capabilities and complementary capabilities, specially, psychic distance – the extent to which the norms and values of two countries differ (Ford,1984, p. 102), when it comes to the potential interplay between business distance and cultural distance with managerial factors. The other observation is that international business depends gradually on transmitting complex information through vis-à-vis communication (Cristea, 2011). Companies vary in their performance because they use their resources in different ways (Shuleska et al. 2016). International business travel plays very important role in export business, especially for wine business, as the export managers practice ritual international business travel to meet the overseas prospective customers, organize wine tasting, participate in international wine fairs. Nevertheless, up to now, we have known very little about the impact of such travel on export performance.Hence, the thesis is organized as follows.First, we present a bibliometric study by analyzing 1344 publications from 1900 to 2019. Second, we examine the interacting effect of the two forms of psychic distance (business and cultural) on export relationship management. Specifically, this research examines the moderating role of cultural distance in the effect of business distance on different dimensions of relationship management and financial export performance. This research builds on a sample of 174 French export executives who were asked to rate their views of their relationship with their Chinese business counterpart in the wine trade,and their related performance. Third, we examine the impact of international business travel on export performance by integrating organizational factors (annual turnover) and strategic management (complementary capability) into the analysis with equally 174 French wine exporting firms.The systematic bibliometric study and two empirical studies reveal meaningful results which shed light on the export literature study and provides numerous contributions on the theoretical, methodological, and managerial levels related to export performance

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the effect of human capital in Swedish export. Human capital is here expressed as the number of employees in the private sector per municipality with university education of at least three years. Two regression models were tested with aggregated export value/municipality and export value per kilo/municipality as dependent variables. Human capital as well as the total accessibility to R&D was assumed to have a positive impact on the Swedish export performance.

During the last decades many economists have attached great importance to education, knowledge and investments in R&D. Sweden is in general abundant in human capital and have also several world leading companies characterized by knowledge intensive production and export. According to the Product Life Cycle Theory, Sweden should focus on the first phase that requires high input of human capital and product competition to maintain the competitiveness in the international market.

The results indicate as expected that the access to human capital as well as accessibility to R&D have a positive impact on the Swedish aggregated export value and export value per kilo. The assumption about human capital being even more important in high value export could not be confirmed by the results. Innovation promoting investments together with continuous efforts to improve innovation nets and interaction possibilities are presumed to be important factors for Swedish competitiveness also in the future.

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
O fomento à competitividade das firmas nacionais é etapa necessária para a construção de um projeto de desenvolvimento econômico e social sustentável de um país. Além dos benefícios macroeconômicos, há um consenso sobre a capacidade, do ponto de vista microeconômico, de que a atividade exportadora traga diversos benefícios para as firmas engajadas. Como reflexo da crescente integração econômica entre os países, o valor das exportações mundiais aumentou 130 por cento nos últimos dez anos. Neste cenário, o Brasil enfrenta na atualidade desafios complexos quanto à sua inserção externa, ligados a algumas questões centrais. Dentre elas, cabe destaque para a sua pequena participação relativa nas exportações mundiais, principalmente quando comparado à evolução dos demais países que compõem o bloco dos BRIC. Adicionalmente existe uma concentração, em termos de valor, das exportações nacionais em um número pequeno de empresas. Em terceiro lugar, há ainda o debate sobre a composição de sua pauta exportadora, em que a presença de commodities primárias vem aumentando de forma significativa no período recente, com redução de quase 40 por cento de valor dos bens manufaturados, tema especialmente preocupante quando se observa que não há indicações no cenário macroeconômico mundial de que esse ciclo de valorização de commodities se reverterá no curto prazo, de modo que seus impactos sobre as exportações nacionais tendem a persistir. Se já é sabido que todos os fatores desse processo não são controlados pelo governo brasileiro, a literatura registra a importância de que políticas governamentais possam ser influentes no desempenho de exportação das firmas. Neste sentido, assim como quase todos os países desenvolvidos e em desenvolvimento, o Brasil fortaleceu o seu compromisso com a assistência à exportação e desenvolveram programas completos para aumentar a atividade exportadora das firmas nacionais. Considerando que os recursos governamentais são escassos e exigem o máximo de esforços para a melhor eficiência alocativa, a pergunta relevante, e objeto de estudo desta tese, é avaliar qual o impacto sobre o desempenho exportador das empresas brasileiras exportadoras da participação em programas governamentais de apoio à exportação. A estratégia de pesquisa foi baseada na estimação de efeitos causais do tratamento por meio da técnica de propensity score matching (PSM) para os três programas avaliados: o BNDES-Exim, o Drawback e o Proex Financiamento. Trata-se de um método observacional ainda pouco aplicado na área de Negócios Internacionais, feito sobre um desenho quasi-experimental aplicado a determinação da inferência causal, que exige a utilização de grupos de controle e avaliações ex ante e ex post. Como as informações estavam disponíveis para a pesquisadora ao longo do período compreendido entre 2000 e 2007, foi realizada uma abordagem utilizando modelos em painel como forma de capturar efeitos intrínsecos da firma e da evolução temporal. Os resultados evidenciaram que a participação nos programas teve impacto no desempenho exportador das firmas apoiadas, mas que este impacto se manifestou de forma distinta entre os três programas e os diversos indicadores de desempenho exportador investigados.
Fostering the competitiveness of domestic firms is a necessary step towards the construction of a project of economic and social development of a country. In addition to the macroeconomic benefits, there is a consensus of the microeconomic point of view on the ability that the export activity brings many benefits to firms engaged. Reflecting the increasing economic integration between the countries, the value of world exports increased by 130 percent over the last ten decade. In this scenario, Brazil currently faces complex challenges regarding its external insertion, regarding mainly some central issues. Among them, it is worth highlighting its relative small share in world exports, especially when compared to advances in other countries that make up the BRIC bloc. Additionally there is a concentration in terms of value of national exports in a small number of companies. Thirdly, there is an ongoing debate about the composition of Brazil s export basket, in which the presence of primary commodities has increased significantly in recent years, with a reduction of nearly 40 percent in value of manufactured goods. This issue is of particular concern when one considers there are no indications in the global macroeconomic environment that this cycle of commodities valuation should reverse in the short term, so that its impact on exports tend to persist. No matter it is known that all factors of this process cannot be controlled by Brazilian government, literature shows the importance of government policies that may be influential in the export performance of firms. In this sense, as almost all developed and developing countries, Brazil has strengthened its commitment to export assistance and have developed comprehensive programs to increase the export activity of domestic firms. Considering that government resources are scarce and require maximum efforts to better allocative efficiency, the relevant question, and the specific purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate the impact on the export performance of Brazilian exporters from participation in government export assistance programs. The research strategy was based on the estimation of the causal effects of treatment using the technique of propensity score matching (PSM) for the three evaluated programs: BNDES-Exim, Drawback and Proex Financiamento. It is a observational method rarely applied in the field of International Business, built on a quasi-experimental design applied to the determination of causal inference, which requires the use of ex ante and ex post control groups. As data was available to the researcher during the period comprised between 2000 and 2007, panel models were applied in order to capture intrinsic effects of the firm and the temporal evolution. The results showed that participation in the programs had an impact on the export performance of the firms supported, but this impact manifested differently among the three programs and the several indicators of export performance adopted.

Building from an export information processing framework this research work particularly focuses on the quality of export memory, its determinants, its subsequent use in decision-making, and its ultimate relationship with export performance. Within export memory use, four export memory use dimensions have been discovered: instrumental, conceptual, legitimizing and manipulating. Results from the qualitative study based on the data from a mail survey with 354 responses reveal that the development of export memory quality is positively related with quality of export information acquisition, the quality of export information interpretation, export coordination, and integration of the information into the organizational system. Several company and environmental factors have also been examined in terms of their relationship with export memory use. The two factors found to be significantly related to the extent of export memory use are acquisition of export information quality and export memory quality. The results reveal that export memory quality is positively related to the extent of export memory use which in turn was found to be positively related to export performance. Furthermore, results of the study show that there is only one aspect of export memory use that significantly affects export performance – the extent of export memory use.

Entrepreneurship, innovation and internationalization are topics of great interest for the scientific community, companies and for all major governments worldwide. In literature there are many studies that are interested and look for the relationship between entrepreneurship and performances. Based on the literature on entrepreneurship, open innovation (OI), green innovation performance (GIP) and export performance (EP), we extend the model by hypothesizing and studying to what extent the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is influenced and mediated by a construct that has become a hot topic among the scientific community in the last decade, as is open innovation; impacting and facilitating the processes of green innovation and the internationalization of the companies. All this is done in an empirical study in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), where resources are scarce and strategies, linked to green production and export plays a fundamental role for their performance. Taking, as a sample Spanish companies in the footwear industry and companies related to science parks, the analyses are carried out to test these relationships through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). It is expected to find a positive relationship in the object of study.

This research expands the current body of export performance research by examining the factors influencing export performance among private sector exporting firms in a developing country, namely Saudi Arabia. This study identifies the internal and external factors that influence firms' export performance, empirically examines those factors' influence on export performance, and derives guidelines for both managers and government policy makers concerning the best policies and strategies for improving export performance. Based on the existing literature, a theoretical model for the relationship between export performance and sixty-five independent variables was developed. Three measures of export performance were operationalised: export intensity, export sales growth, and export profitability. The independent variables included both internal and external variables. Internal variables were grouped under firms' differential advantages, export marketing strategy, and management quality. External variables were grouped under local market environment, national environment, and foreign market environment. The analysis and hypothesis testing were carried out for each measure separately. The hypotheses were tested using data collected by means of mail questionnaire from 154 exporting manufacturing firms in Saudi Arabia. Additional data were collected through six in-depth interviews. The results of the analysis revealed the importance of many internal and external factors in influencing firms' export performance. These results differed across different export performance measures. For example export intensity was explained significantly by export marketing strategy, export sales growth was a function of management quality, and export profitability was explained mainly by firms' differential advantages. Moreover, external variables were found to explain export performance. Export intensity was associated positively with exporting to Asia and export profitability was positively associated with exporting to Arab countries.

This study evaluates the performance of the export marketing strategy for Malaysian palm oil over the period 1980-90, with emphasis on the promotion of this commodity in a large number of importing countries world-wide. The analysis of global data indicates that over this period the average per capita consumption level of oils and fats grew from 13.4 to 15.1 kg/hd, led by soybean oil and followed by palm, rape seed, and coconut oils, tallow and butter. However, the per capita consumption trend of soybean and coconut oils is declining, while there is a positive trend for rapeseed and palm oils, tallow and butter. Regression analysis using 1990 cross-sectional data based on 92 importing countries indicates that there is a significant positive and inelastic income response in per capita consumption of oils and fats, but that the income elasticity of consumption for animal fats is higher than that for vegetable oils. The relationship between per capita consumption of oils and fats types with price was found to be negative. The only significant relationship between per capita consumption of oil types and price is with palm oil. Between 1982 and 1990, vegetable oils accounted for 78 per cent of world trade in oils and fats, led by palm, soybean, rapeseed and sunflower oils. Malaysian palm oil accounted for 21 per cent of the total oils and fats trade in 1982-90. Based on market share analysis, the export gains for Malaysian palm oil came mainly from the general expansion of demand for oils and fats, particularly in developing countries, and to the lesser extent from the market reorientation and competitiveness effects. The contribution of promotional efforts was evaluated using import demand and promotion model for Malaysian palm oil. Promotional efforts were measured by estimated costs of overseas trips and familiarisation programmes, and a binary variable for ministerial visits.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Negócios Internacionais apresentada à ESTG - Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão do Instituto Politécnico de Leiria.
Why do some firms succeed in exporting while others do not? Export activities are a crucial area of international business but the drivers of superior export performance are not yet well understood. In this study, employing a sample of 52 Portuguese firms, we examine what are the distinctive resources and capabilities associated to superior export performance through the establishment of sustainable competitive advantages. Resource-based view supports the development of explicit hypothesis. Different combinations of export-related resources and capabilities are identified as source of cost, product and service-type advantages and how do these advantages impact economic, strategic and relational dimensions of export performance. The findings of this study have important implications for theory, managers and policymakers. Limitations of the study are considered, and future research directions are identified.

The study of export information use is in its infancy stage since the export information literature has tended to focus on acquisition rather than use issues. The objectives were thus the development of reliable and valid measures of export information use, and the assessment or antecedents and impact on export performance. After reviewing the literature, an exploratory study of export decision-makers was undertaken. The results suggested the existence of two types of export information use: instrumental/conceptual and symbolic. A mail questionnaire was developed on the basis of both the literature review (Chapter Two) and the exploratory study (Chapter Three). The research instrument was pretested. For the main mail survey, a sample of 198 cases was achieved. Established measure development procedures were employed for producing scales of use of information acquired via different types of sources. In addition, measures of export information acquisition, intra-organisational use (reflecting extent of use) and export performance were developed to enhance the analysis. Finally, an overall model of export information use was tested via a series of multiple regression and moderated regression approaches. The antecedents to export information use examined in this study encompassed company size, export experience, export structure, export dependence, and export complexity, acquisition from different types of sources, awareness of export information sources, information intensity, over-acquisition, overload and environmental turbulence. Some of these variables were found to be directly related to export information use while others were linked to use through acquisition. Intra-organisational use of export information was found to have a positive link with export performance, as did instrumental/conceptual use of export market intelligence information. Instrumental/conceptual use of both export marketing research and export assistance information were found to be negatively related to export performance.

Greek export competitiveness has decreased continuously during the last decade and the external trade deficit grew to more than €20 billion in 2000. A major factor contributing to this trend is the lack of appropriate export marketing strategies. This thesis examines export marketing strategies of firms in the Greek food and beverage industry which are some of the most dynamic in Greece and contributed 20% to both total output and to total export earnings in 2000. Moreover, this sector is of wider interest because Greece is a member of the European Union and is at a similar stage of development as some other members such as Portugal and Ireland, which have similar structural characteristics and exporting contingencies. The aim of the thesis is to identify the nature of interdependencies at the firm level between internal and external environment, export marketing strategy, and export performance in the Greek food and beverage industry. In addition, the thesis aims to identify marketing practices that firms in this sector could use to improve export performance and competitiveness. It also seeks to provide insights for government policy makers to improve the competitive position of Greek exporters in general. The research employs a novel approach by integrating the research techniques of qualitative in-depth interviews, and quantitative multivariate analysis of exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The advantage of this integrated approach is that the qualitative analysis ensures data quality while the quantitative analysis provides results that can be tested statistically. Using exploratory factor analysis we examme five constructs - export stimulus, export problems, competitive advantages, information sources, and entrepreneurial orientation - that influence decisions concerning export marketing strategy and the ultimate export performance. These constructs and other, including firm size, export experience, and management characteristics, are then integrated into a structural equation model to reveal the type, direction and magnitude of their interdependencies. Results show that the model has good fit with the marketing strategy related variables, especially the export marketing mix and entrepreneurial orientation, the internal environment, especially management competencies and competitive advantage, and the external environment, especially export market attractiveness and trade barriers, affecting export marketing performance. An optimal export marketing strategy is then developed which can be compared with each firm's current strategy and firm-specific recommendations follow. A key conclusion is that export marketing assistance provided by the Greek government is ineffective for reasons such as inadequate provision of information and poor generic national export promotion.

O aumento das exportações é, atualmente, um dos principais desafios macroeconômicos do país. Do ponto de vista empresarial, entrar no mercado internacional é fundamental para aumentar a competitividade, obter economia de escala e diminuir a dependência do mercado doméstico. A análise da estrutura das exportações brasileiras mostra que as oportunidades de crescimento da base de empresas exportadoras e do aumento do valor exportado por empresa estão concentradas nas micro, pequenas e médias empresas. No entanto, são poucas as empresas brasileiras desse porte que conseguem se consolidar no mercado internacional. Diante desse cenário, tornar-se relevante analisar as empresas desse porte, que já exportam e que conseguiram se consolidar no mercado internacional, para identificar quais fatores determinam o sucesso no mercado internacional. Para isso, uma pesquisa quantitativa foi realizada com 102 empresas exportadoras brasileiras, que foram segmentadas em dois grupos de acordo com a performance exportadora. O resultado da análise dos dados aponta quatro fatores estatisticamente predominantes no grupo de empresas com melhor performance exportadora. O primeiro deles é a experiência (tempo de atuação) no mercado internacional; o segundo é a existência de uma departamento exclusivo para atividade exportadora dentro da empresa; o terceiro é a utilização de programas de financiamento para exportação como o ACC (Adiantamento de Contrato de Câmbio) e, finalmente, o quarto fator é perceber a qualidade do produto como seu diferencial competitivo.
The Brazilian export growth is one of the most macroeconomics challenges of the government. In terms of companies, to do business abroad is essential to increase competitiveness, gain economic scale and reduce national domestic dependence. Analysis of Brazilian export companies show that the opportunities to raise the number of Brazilian export companies and the value export per company is among small and medium companies. However, there are few Brazilian companies of this size that export and that are well established in international marketing. Therefore, it is relevant to analyze a sample of this few companies in order to identify the factors that determined their success in international marketing. For that reason, this dissertation includes a survey with 102 Brazilian small and medium export companies. These companies were segmented in two groups according to their export performance. The data analyze points out four factors that predominated in the group of better export performance. The first one is the experience (time) in international marketing, the second one is the existence of a department in the company focus on international trade; the third one is the utilization of export finance programs and, finally, the fourth is the perception of product quality as a competitive advantage.

COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
O presente estudo tem por objetivo estudar a temática de desempenho de exportação sobre a ótica teórica e prática. Para isto, foram revisados os principais modelos teóricos utilizados para avaliar o desempenho de exportação e buscou-se confrontar as variáveis utilizadas nestes estudos com as variáveis utilizadas pelos gestores de exportação dentro do ambiente organizacional. A metodologia utilizada foi: (i) pesquisa bibliográfica a trabalhos conceituais sobre o construto de desempenho de exportação, a revisões de literatura e a estudos empíricos; (ii) entrevistas semi-estruturadas com 15 gestores de empresas exportadoras nacionais para identificar as principais dimensões e indicadores considerados na medição do desempenho de exportação. Como resultados principais desta análise, percebeu-se que, em geral, os gestores entrevistados: utilizam um horizonte de curto prazo para as análises dos resultados das atividades de exportação; não possuem informações sobre os concorrentes no mercado externo; utilizam principalmente variáveis de medidas econômico-financeiras e de mercado de orientação temporal absoluta; e, utilizam os mesmos indicadores tanto para definir atividades exportadoras de sucesso quanto de fracasso.
The objective of this study is to examine the issue of export performance from a theoretical and a practical perspective. Theoretical models used to assess the export performance were reviewed and the variables used in these studies were compared with the variables used by export managers within the organizational environment. The methodology was: (i) literature review of conceptual works about the construct of export performance, reviews of literature and empirical studies, (ii) semi-structured interviews with 15 managers of national exporting companies to identify the key dimensions and indicators considered in measuring the performance of exports. As main results of this analysis, it is understood that, in general, the managers interviewed: use a short-term horizon to analyze the results of exports activities, do not have information about competitors in foreign markets, mainly using economic/financial and market variables measures with absolute time orientation, and use the same indicators to define success or failure of export activities.

How some firms achieve superior international performance relative to other firms in the same market, as one of the critical questions in international strategic management, is inextricably bound up in questions such as why firms differ, what initiates and drives their internationalization strategies, and what is the main source of their competitive advantage that generates superior performance in the international context. Firm export performance is regarded as one of the key indicators of the success of a firm's export operations, and as such has been extensively studied phenomenon. Numerous studies have been conducted pertaining to provide better understanding of the factors (firm- or environment-specific) and behaviours (e.g., export strategy) that make exporting a successful venture. However, the research results to date are far from uniform and conclusive. This thesis advances the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) as a valuable theoretical framework in identifying advantage-generating resources and capabilities as critical determinants of the export strategy and export performance. Conceptually, this research is an attempt to integrate the extant views of the firm's internationalization process, by employing a resource-based framework. The findings in this thesis were derived by analysing a set of primary data from 356 British exporters generated in 2007 via an electronic and Internet based survey. The findings in this thesis endorsed its main propositions. Particular internal, firm specific factors were found to be the most significant determinants of the export initiation process, the firm's degree of geographic diversification, and the firm's export strategy and performance. In particular, managerial, knowledge, planning and technology resources and capabilities were found to have a significant positive effect on export success. These resource factors are either skill-based or 5 knowledge/process-based resources or capabilities and as such have high levels of tacitness, complexity and dynamism, and consequently are firm-specific and difficult to duplicate. These resources and capabilities generate resource-based competitive advantage and become the driving factor of the firm-level performance differences. Furthermore, the study findings provide empirical validation of the proposition that resources and capabilities are two distinct concepts. This study therefore provides fresh empirical support for the RBV propositions. This thesis also contributes to the ongoing debate of the potential gap between academic research and practitioners' views of critical success factors. This dissertation contributes to the better understanding of the value and importance of particular internal, firm-specific resources and capabilities as determinants of the firm's export strategy and performance. The theoretical and methodological grounding of this study contributes to the advancement of export related research in several respects. First, by providing better specification of the nature of the effects - direct or indirect - of particular resource factors on export initiation, strategy and performance. Second, by examining both, the individual and concurrent effects of the resource variables on export strategy and performance. Third, by conducting exploratory as well as confirmatory factor analysis to validate construct measurements, and utilization of structural equation modelling to improve validity, reliability and error levels. Fourth, by employing a composite measure of export performance, including financial and non-financial options. Fifth, by contrasting the empirical findings with the management's subjective (perceptual) observations of the investigated relationships within a same data sample. 6 This study opens future research opportunities for applying the proposed resource based integrative framework in investigations of resource-strategy and resource performance relationships in different organizational contexts.

Investigations into export performance have generated considerable knowledge about the construct, but they continue to identify research issues. These include the identification, and interaction, of the antecedents of export performance; understanding of the process and dynamics involved in export performance; the need for explanatory models; and the need for consistent and relevant research approaches. In an investigation of New Zealand export firms, the study addresses these concerns by utlising a two-stage, case study based research approach that results in the development of a conceptual model of export sales performance. The model is tested qualitatively and quantitatively, in a longitudinal study spanning six years. The conceptual model differs from existing models of export performance in a number of important respects, and thus contributes to theory relating to export performance in the following ways. The model highlights the central role of strategy process, extending current views of the role of strategy in export performance. This is reflected by two key predictor variables, export strategy implementation and competency management, not prominent in existing export performance models. Firm-level strategy determined firms’ relative emphasis on domestic versus export sales, suggesting a contingency dimension, associated mainly with changing external environments. Complex multivariate relationships were identified, through the use of the qualitative research software programmes, Nudist and Decision Explorer, not previously used together in export performance research. Implications for management, policy-makers and further research were identified from the results of the study.

Increased globalisation of trade has led a growing number of firms to search beyond their traditional domestic markets. As a result, export-led growth has gained focus, particularly amongst industrialising nations, or so-called efficiencydriven economies, in search of economic growth. Policy prescriptions have generally proposed a weakening of the exchange rate as a means to stimulate exports; whilst an exchange rate appreciation would be detrimental to exports and encourage imports. Past research on this topic has been mixed.This research examines the impact of exchange rate on export performance in a sample of nine efficiency-driven economies for the period from 1990 to 2009. These economies, with floating exchange rate arrangements, include Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey. Panel data models using a fixed-effects method have been applied in this research. The research finds that a weakening of the exchange rate does not necessarily improve export performance. To the contrary, export growth is associated with a stronger, relative exchange rate. The lag effect of exchange rate movement on export performance is slightly more pronounced, but remains statistically insignificant.
Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2011.
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
unrestricted

This dissertation examines the role of product quality on India’s export performance to its major trading partners. It aims at evaluating the empirical relevance of product quality to explore India’s export performance from 1996-2015 using different estimation methods. The first chapter examines the relationship between product quality and export quantity in the context of how product quality influences the quantity of Indian exports traded in the global market. We perform the analysis by constructing extensive set of quality estimates and using those estimates to analyze the influence of product quality on Indian export quantity. The second chapter deals with the probability of export entry and exit of India’s exports at goods level. We draw annual product level export data for India to each of its top exporters from UN-COMTRADE recorded in the Harmonized System (HS) at the six-digit level covering the period 1996–2015. In the third chapter, we develop an entirely different dataset on export quality using a different methodology for the textiles sector. After we obtain our new set of quality estimates, we use those quality estimates to analyze the determinants of quality growth in panel cross-country framework.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to define export performance and to identify factors which influence or improve export performance. There is a considerable lack of coherence among scholars on what export performance is; from whose viewpoint to measure it, namely the government, the company, the product or the specific market exported to and the time frame. A variety of factors was found to influence export performance positively and these are tested on a Cape Town based pumpkin exporter. It was concluded that net profit is the only consistently valid measure of export performance .. To achieve success in exports require the expertise of overseas distributors and agents as well as a world-oriented approach where delivery and services is important. When exporting a perishable agricultural product it is important to compete on superior quality and to concentrate on a few major markets. Success in any export venture depends primarily on top-management commitment, management being prepared to endure setbacks in order to become successful and channelling its attitude towards risk-taking into positively influencing export performarice.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie is om uitvoerprestasie te meet en die faktore wat uitvoerprestasie bepaal, te identifiseer. Daar is teenstrydigheid tussen navorsers oor presies wat uitvoerprestasie is, asook die uitgangspunt vanwaar dit gemeet word, naamlik die regering, die maatskappy, die produk, die spesifieke mark waarheen uitgevoer word en die tydraam. 'n Verskeidenheid faktore is geïdentifiseer wat uitvoerprestasie positief beïnvloed en dit word getoets op 'n Kaapstadse pampoenuitvoerder. Daar is gevind dat nettowins die enigste betroubare en geldige maatstaf is om uitvoerprestasie te meet. Die gebruik van oorsese verspreiders en agente, asook 'n wêreld-georiënteerde benadering van lewering en diens is belangrik vir suksesvolle uitvoere. Wanneer 'n bederfbare landbouproduk uitgevoer word, is dit belangrik om mee te ding op grond van voortreflike diens en deur te konsentreer op 'n paar hoofmarkte. Sukses in enige uitvoerprojek hang hoofsaaklik af van die toewyding van topbestuur, of bestuur bereid is om terugslae te verduur ten einde suksesvol te raak en deurdat bestuur sy benadering jeens risiko in die regte rigting kanaliseer ten einde uitvoere positief te beïnvloed.

La presente investigación tiene por objetivo hacer una aportación a la literatura en los campos de negocios y marketing internacionales con el fin de arrojar luz sobre el comportamiento y rendimiento exportador de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYME), enfocándose en el contexto geográfico Español, uno de los países Europeos caracterizados tanto por su alta densidad de PYMEs como por su alto número de empleados posicionados en estas empresas. El crecimiento económico de España es en gran medida dependiente de los resultados de la actividad exportadora. A pesar de su relevancia, hay una escasez en términos de investigación relacionada al rendimiento exportador de las PYMEs a nivel Español, por lo que se destaca la necesidad de llevar a cabo más estudios en este contexto en particular.
En este sentido, la presente tesis identifica y propone para su posterior análisis los siguientes temas de real importancia para explicar el comportamiento y rendimiento exportador de las PYMEs: 1) El papel de las características y las percepciones del directivo a la hora de determinar la participación y expansión de la actividad exportadora, 2) La influencia de los determinantes internos y externos sobre el rendimiento exportador objetivo y sobre la satisfacción con el resultado exportador; y el potencial impacto de ciertas dimensiones del rendimiento exportador (objetivas) sobre otras dimensiones de rendimiento exportador (subjetivas), 3) Y por último, la influencia del grado de estandardización/adaptación de la estrategia genérica de marketing internacional sobre el rendimiento exportador objetivo y la satisfacción con el resultado exportador, al mismo tiempo que se investigará cómo esta relación está moderada por ciertos determinantes internos y externos.
El marco teórico se basa en varios enfoques: el enfoque gradual del fenómeno de la internacionalización, la teoría de recursos y capacidades aplicada en el contexto internacional, la teoría de redes y el enfoque de contingencia con respecto a la estrategia de marketing internacional. Para la realización de esta tesis se emplearon tanto la metodología cualitativa (Capítulo 1) así como la cuantitativa (Capítulos 2 y 3). Mediante el empleo de la metodología cualitativa, basada en estudios de caso, se logró una profunda comprensión del proceso de internacionalización de las PYMES Españolas. Por consiguiente, se ha desarrollado un cuestionario estructurado con el propósito llevar a cabo el estudio cuantitativo.
Los datos fueron recogidos a través de una encuesta en línea dirigida a los directivos a cargo de la actividad exportadora de las PYMES Españolas. Para el tratamiento empírico de los datos recolectados se empleó tanto el análisis univariante como multivariante, empleando el Paquete Estadístico para las Ciencias Sociales (SPSS) y los Modelos de Ecuaciones Estructurales (SEM) - Análisis de Estructuras de Momento.
Los resultados muestran que, coincidiendo con la teoría de recursos y capacidades, el papel del directivo, en particular su orientación internacional, parece ser crucial para la actividad exportadora de las PYMEs. Sin embargo, la influencia de ciertas características y percepciones de los directivos parece ser más importante según la fase del proceso de internacionalización en la cual se encuentra la empresa o tener un impacto mayor en algunos indicadores relacionados al rendimiento exportador. Los resultados también revelan la existencia de una relación positiva entre el rendimiento exportador objetivo (la intensidad exportadora y el número de mercados y zonas de exportación) y el rendimiento exportador subjetivo (satisfacción del directivo con la posición de exportación, la rentabilidad de la actividad exportadora y el acceso a nuevos mercados), relación que no había sido abordada previamente en la literatura. Por otra parte, los resultados empíricos muestran que el éxito en la actividad exportadora puede lograrse mediante el empleo de una estrategia genérica de marketing internacional más estandarizada o bien una estrategia más localizada. La estandardización y la adaptación no deben considerarse, por sí solos, como estrategias puras, sino que deben entenderse desde la perspectiva de la contingencia la cual sugiere la presencia de un equilibrio entre la estandardización y la adaptación de la estrategia de marketing internacional, cuya interacción daría lugar a mejores resultados de exportación. Este estudio identificó tres variables contingentes tanto internas como externas, más concretamente el tamaño de la empresa, la intensidad tecnológica de la industria y los factores del entorno que moderan la relación establecida entre la estrategia genérica de marketing internacional y el rendimiento exportador, medido de forma objetiva y subjetiva.
En cuanto a las implicaciones para los empresarios, los directivos deben ser conscientes de que actualmente, debido al rápido desarrollo tecnológico junto con la eliminación de numerosas barreras comerciales, la entrada en mercados extranjeros no es tan arriesgada como solía ser en el pasado, mientras que representa una alternativa viable para el crecimiento de la empresa y la búsqueda de mayores beneficios. El papel fundamental en la mejora del rendimiento exportador objetivo está directamente relacionado con el conocimiento de lenguas extranjeras y de negocios internacionales del directivo, junto con el firme compromiso de la empresa con la actividad exportadora. Por lo tanto, los principales esfuerzos deben dirigirse hacia la adquisición de estas habilidades, así como dedicar más recursos a las operaciones de exportación, de forma sistemática y organizada. Por consiguiente, los esfuerzos en términos de política también deben enfocarse a mejorar la orientación internacional de los directivos con el fin de llevar a buen término la formulación y puesta en práctica de estrategias de internacionalización.
Como líneas de investigación futura sería interesante replicar estudios similares en otros contextos geográficos, de esta manera los resultados de esta tesis podrían ser generalizados a distintos entornos. Además, sería aconsejable llevar a cabo un análisis longitudinal, a la vez que se recomienda considerar variables compuestas como, por ejemplo, el grado de orientación internacional del directivo, la estandardización y la adaptación de la estrategia de marketing internacional o el rendimiento exportador. De esta forma, estas variables multidimensionales podrían ser analizadas desde una perspectiva temporal, lo que permitiría llevar a cabo una investigación de relaciones causa-efecto.
The present dissertation aims to contribute to the international business and marketing literature by shedding light on the export behaviour and performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), in the Spanish geographical context, which represents one of the European settings characterised by high SMEs density and workforce employed by these enterprises. Spain's economic growth is vastly dependent on the results of the export activity. In spite of their relevance, there is a scarcity of research in the SME export centred literature, within the Spanish context, thus it becomes apparent that more investigations should be carried out in this particular setting.
In this sense, the present study identifies and proposes for further analysis the following topics of increased importance for SMEs' export activity and performance: 1) The role played by managerial characteristics and perceptions in determining export involvement and expansion; 2) The influence the internal and external determinants have on objective export performance and satisfaction with export performance and the potential impact of certain dimensions of export performance on other export performance dimensions; 3) The influence the standardisation/adaptation of the overall international marketing strategy has on objective export performance and satisfaction with export performance, simultaneously investigating how this relationship is moderated by certain internal and external determinants.
Theoretical support is provided by several approaches: the gradualist approach to the internationalisation phenomenon, the Resource Based View (RBV) applied in the international context, the network theory and the contingency approach to the international marketing strategy. Both qualitative (Chapter 1) and quantitative (Chapter 2 and 3) methodologies have been combined for the completion of this dissertation. By employing the qualitative methodology based on in-depth case studies profound understanding of the internationalisation process in Spanish SMEs was gained. Consequently, a structured questionnaire was developed for further carrying out the quantitative study.
Data was collected through an online survey addressed to the decision maker in charge of the export activity in Spanish SMEs. For empirically treating the quantitative data univariate and multivariate analysis with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) - Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) were performed.
The results show that, concurring with the RBV, decision maker's role, particularly his/her international outlook appears to be crucial for SME's export activity. Nevertheless, the influence of certain managerial characteristics and perceptions seems to be more prominent according to the internationalisation stage or to have a stronger impact on some export performance indicators. The findings also reveal the existence of a positive relationship between the objective export performance (export intensity and the number of export markets and zones) and the subjective export performance (managerial satisfaction with export position, export profitability and new market entry), relationship that to the best of our knowledge has not been explored before. Moreover, the empirical results display that successful export performance could be achieved by employing either a more standardised or a more adapted overall level of the international marketing strategy. Standardisation and adaptation should not be considered, in isolation, as pure strategies, but rather should be understood from a contingency perspective which suggests a balance between the standardisation and the adaptation of international marketing strategy would lead to increased export performance. This study identified three internal and external contingent variables, namely the size of the firm, the technological intensity of the industry and the environmental factors, that moderate the relation established between the overall international marketing strategy and export performance, measured both in an objective and a subjective manner.
Regarding the implications for practitioners, decision makers should be aware that, presently, due to rapid technological development along with the removal of various trade barriers, entering overseas markets is not bearing as much risk as it used to in the past, while representing a viable alternative for firm's growth and pursuit of higher profits. The fundamental role in improving objective export performance is played by their own foreign language skills, international business knowledge and firm's commitment to exporting, hence efforts should be directed towards acquiring these abilities as well as devoting resources to the export operations, in a systematic and organised manner. Therefore, policy initiatives should also aim at enhancing the development of decision maker's international outlook with a view to successfully formulating and putting into practice internationalisation strategies.
As future research directions it would be interesting to replicate similar studies in distinct geographical contexts, so the results could be generalised to larger populations. Longitudinal analysis should also be conducted, thus complex constructs such as the degree of international orientation of the decision maker, the standardisation/adaptation of the international marketing strategy or the export performance could be analysed from a time-based perspective, allowing for the investigation of composite cause-effect relationships.

Trade liberalization and international economic integration are major and important issues especially to developing countries including Vietnam. They have provided the country with many opportunities such as foreign investment projects from developed countries, an increase in the State budget through taxation on exports and imports, the higher level of employment, which have all contributed to improving the standard living of the people. Since the country's Reform (Doi Moi) in 1986, trade liberalization has brought about an increase export value from 0.78 billion USD in 1986 to more than 72 billion USD in 2010 which accounted for an average of 70% increase to the GDP of Vietnam. Moreover, Vietnamese firms are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of innovation and this is becoming the main driver for Vietnam's deeper participation in regional and global economic integration organization such as ASEAN and WTO. Exports play an important role in Vietnam’s international trade, helping to increase the national revenue and to improve the position of Vietnamese firms in the global value chain. Such an improvement of Vietnam's position in the global value chain means being higher in the chain rather than carrying out simple processing at the low-end. If the production factors which include labor, capital, and fixed assets are analyzed in relation to firms' exports, plausible assessments of Vietnamese firms' contributions to the global chain can be determined. It should be also noted that the country's trade policy reform has affected the structure of Vietnam's exports during periods, has been subject to the effect of the volatile world's trading market and the effect of an emerging giant exporter such as China. However, Vietnam's exports are facing some problems on international trade market for various reasons. Firstly, the export structure continues to be mainly based on primary and labor-intensive products such as the agricultural, forestry, fishery and footwear sectors. Secondly, low value added and labor intensive products account for a large proportion of the total exports since almost all economic sectors of Vietnam are involved in the assembly and simple processing stage of the global value chain. We hope this dissertation can help to constitute a reliable basis for formulating export trade policy. Firstly, there is a need for greater efforts from Vietnamese government to implement social economic structural reform with a special focus on SOEs, in order to strengthen investors' confidence. Secondly, there is also a need to encourage the shift away from labor-intensive export products toward capital-intensive products with special emphasis on innovation in particular through research and development activities of firms. The dissertation studies export trade of a single country namely Vietnam. It is an empirical study, which tests both macro and micro determinants of Vietnamese export trade. Particularly, the dissertation uses export trade data at country and firm level to test hypotheses for each determinant including firm and sector effects. We have extracted a dataset on Vietnam's export trade for the 1997-2009 period via WITS of the World Bank. For firm's gravity model, we used export data of firms from VCO for the 2006-2010 period. We analyzed determinants of firms' exports by combining firms' export data and the data of footwear, rice and wood and wood products firms' characteristics for the year 2008. Since firms' export intensity strictly lies in the unit interval, we transformed it into the type of logit then attempted with the OLS and quantile regression methods. Our dissertation mainly focuses on certain external factors of Vietnamese exports at macro and micro levels and analyzes some important determinants of exporting firms in three sectors namely footwear, rice and wood and wood products. Relevant findings based on empirical analysis serve to suggest policy implications and firms' managerial practices. In general, wealthier nations are preferred destination market for Vietnamese exports because of their higher purchasing power. The government of Vietnam therefore tries to negotiate proactively and conclude trade agreement as well as memorandum of understanding with such countries as these measures facilitate trade for local firms. However, rice firms in particular do not necessarily consider country with the large economy to be their destination market. In fact, there are several reasons for firms to enter international market and to sign contracts such as to improve their net profits, to expand their market share or to develop potential market. Regarding determinants of Vietnamese exporting firms, higher wages reduce a firms' propensity to export in general which significantly affects wood and wood products and footwear firms. Although, in some cases, increasing wages somewhat improve worker's productivity thus increasing export revenue, in other cases for economic reasons, higher wages can not be afforded by employers for manual workers in manufacturing sectors where skilled labor is not essential. Investing in high-tech production technology does not necessarily increase growth in the value of Vietnamese firms' exports in three sectors mentioned. Although, state-owned firms have been granted preferential or priority treatment by the Government, they appears to be less efficient than others. The regression result shows that state-owned firms in all three sectors are lagging in export performance. Ongoing Government support for state-owned, firms may lead to an unfair competitive environment especially for small, privately owned firms since the Government protection of the Government seem to be unreasonable. If full data on firms' exports of in all sectors had been obtained, the author of the dissertation were able to draw conclusions on the determinants for all sectors and compare their effects on exports accordingly. We consider innovation indicators would be interesting particularly for firms located in a developing and emerging country such as Vietnam. Therefore, we need an appropriate survey method to collect information to resolve the missing data problem of the existing database.
Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Why are some companies more successful in internationalization than others? Research in international business has tended to focus on macro-level factors, such as the “cultural distance” between home and host country. Micro-level factors, operating at the firm, or, individual-level, may well lead to differences in internationalization success. In this dissertation, I focus on one such factor: the “cultural intelligence” of the export manager. Individual managers play indeed a key role in major strategic decisions, especially within SMEs. I set out to explore a unique dataset of Italian SMEs to analyze how cultural intelligence, cultural distance, and export channels interactively influence export performance. I also investigate the role of the cultural intelligence of the managers in dealing with the cultural diversity of the firm’s export partners. Specifically, I analyze how cultural intelligence may help export managers manage cross-cultural relationships with the firm’s export partners, and turn cultural differences in superior alliance performance. My findings illustrates that cultural intelligence contributes to export performance and that this effect increases with cultural distance. This study’s results also suggest that the cultural intelligence of managers is needed mostly when the firm exports directly abroad and in culturally distant countries, rather than through foreign intermediaries. However, if the firm exports with the help of export partners, the higher the cultural distance between the home country and export countries and among the firm’s export partners, the more the firm needs managers with a high level of cultural intelligence to be successful. Finally, my findings highlight that measures of cultural intelligence that are specific to the situation (i.e. task-specific CQ and metacognitive CQ) matter more than general capabilities (i.e. general CQ) in explaining improvements in export performance and alliance portfolio performance. Together, the results of this research stress the importance of looking at individual-level variables, such as cultural intelligence, to explain the export activity of the firm and its outcome. Thus, they generally suggest that research in international business and alliance portfolio may benefit from bringing the individual manager back in.

As the globalisation process accelerates there is a growing need for individual countries to understand the bases for effective performance in international trade. Because it makes up such a large share of world trade, it is especially important to understand what determines effectiveness in exporting. Despite much empirical research, especially over recent decades, the state of knowledge on this topic remains fragmented, unclear and unsatisfactory. The motivation for the present study was therefore twofold: dissatisfaction with the present state of knowledge in this vital area and the importance to the UK economy of improving its export performance in a world of increasing competition. Its aim was to contribute to the resolution of both. In addition to finding what appeared to be quite serious methodological problems in a group of earlier studies, our review of the literature indicated that the best prospects for identifying the determinants of effective exporting were to be found, not at national or sectoral level but at that of the individual firm. Accordingly, an empirical survey research project was developed. To minimise unquantifiable inter-sectoral variability, it was focused on a single sector of industry. For a range of reasons, including the limited amount of information available about its current export activity and prospects, the UK knitted apparel industry was chosen. Special care having been taken to assemble the fullest possible sampling frame and to develop a suitable instrument (which included an export performance model), a mail survey in the form of a stratified random sample of exporting UK manufacturers of knitted apparel was carried through from late 2000. Persistent follow-up by mail and telephone generated a response rate of 70 per cent, comprising close to half of the sampling frame, that was representative of all company size bands, levels of exporting and products. The overall quality of the responses was good; tests of non-response did not find any indications of non-response bias. Data analysis, designed to test thoroughly our 10 export-determinants hypotheses, relied primarily on Pearsonian correlation at the bivariate level then sequentially on Multiple Regression Analysis, Canonical Correlation Analysis and Partial Least Squares. A perhaps slightly novel aspect of the research was that it was not solely cross-sectional in format; a longitudinal element was provided by drawing on the researcher's earlier surveys ; and a panel element by following-up, in 2007, the main 2000 field survey. Where possible, these data were drawn upon in the analysis and interpretation. There did not appear to be any conflict between the three multivariate techniques employed and indeed their findings were not dissimilar. The outcome of the data analysis was to uphold, to varying degrees, most of our hypotheses about the determinants of effective or successful exporting. Those that did not find support were three: firm size, product adaptation, and price determination method. Most strongly supported as determinants were promotional intensity, serving many markets and visits to trade fairs/exhibitions; others which were statistically significant, included management commitment, special staff skills and the use of Commission Agents. While the conclusions must remain a bit tentative they are encouraging.

For the past three decades, export manufacturing has played an important role in Thailand's economic success. Among the exporters, the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have increasingly taken part. As a result, export performance at both micro and macro level has become of interest to academics, exporting firms, intermediaries and Thai government policy makers. Thus, extensive studies concerning determinants of export performance are reported in literature on export marketing. However, despite the significance of resources in implementing marketing strategies and performance, the Resource-Based View (RBV) has not been explicitly and fully explored in this literature. Moreover, the vital role of intermediary resources in export performance has been also largely ignored. Hence, the applicability of RBV should be examined to investigate the effects of firm resources and export intermediary resources on export performance. Similarly, marketing control, in spite of its importance, used by manufacturing exporters in relation to their intermediaries, has not been substantially explored. The availability of firm and export intermediary resources provides flexibility for manufacturing exporters in maintaining marketing control over their intermediaries, which in turn, influences export performance. Hence, the aim of the study is to investigate the applicability of RBV and marketing control theory in determining export performance. Moreover, in the export marketing literature, there are very few studies in developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia: this study, therefore focusses on export performance of SMEs in an export-driven, developing economy, Thailand. During the course of its investigation, this study used the 'drop-in questionnaire' method of delivering and collecting the questionnaires in person with the purpose of enhancing responses from export managers. With respect to their individual export ventures, they were asked to provide answers regarding the availability of firm resources, their perception of the availability of export intermediary resources, and the use of marketing control mechanisms on export intermediaries. Preliminary data analysis used Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and was followed by the development of a structural model, which was then tested with AMOS 4.0 Package. ix The results from the above analyses substantiate the empirical link between resources, firm and export intermediary resources, and strategic export performance, and also between the availability of resources and the use of marketing controls. The findings show that production and marketing capabilities (firm resources) and good relationships and cooperation with exporters (export intermediary resources) have an important direct effect on export performance. Hence, the study confirms the applicability of RBV in export literature. The results also indicate that firm's marketing capabilities, export intermediary's relationship and cooperation, and knowledge and experience, influence the use of marketing control, thereby supporting the hypotheses that the availability of firm and export intermediary resources facilitates the use of marketing control.

Small and medium-sized enterprises play much more important roles in both domestic and international markets nowadays. The issue that factors influence their export performance (mainly the export sales and profits) also becomes much more attractive these years. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the factors which influence the SMEs’ export performance and how each factor influences the SMEs’ export performance. This study is built on a modified model of the factors influencing the SMEs’ export performance. The authors use case study to conduct this research, and one company’s (Company B’s) data is collected through the semi-structured interview. Some findings are obtained: the important factors which influence Company B’s export performance contain the trade shows, the expenses on getting the authentication, capital sources, export rebate, firm network, firm previous experience, firm competencies, personal network, international orientation and personal previous experience. In addition, the authors also find the effect of firm size is indirect. However, customs duty, transportation, as well as building up the brand do not play important impacts on export performance. Take the trade shows as an example, personal cards and product samples are sent to the customers, then the customers who are interested in the products will contact Company B. In this way, the customers are accumulated and the export sales increase. Thus, the export performance is enhanced.