The effect of matching on perceived export barriers and performance in an era of globalization discontents: Empirical evidence from UK SMEs

In this study we examine the effect of matching, a comprehensive networking concept, on the perceived export barriers and export performance of small exporting firms. We introduce matching as a moderating variable affecting the link of perceived internal/external export barriers to export performance. Using a sample of 106 UK-based exporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), we find that matching alleviates the negative impact of perceived internal export barriers on export performance. Furthermore, the empirical results show that export experience and export commitment reduce managers' perceived internal and external export barriers. The study shows that matching, as a networking-tool at multiple levels, can help to overcome export barriers, thus providing a mechanism to offset challenges opened up through nationalistic policies.     

Trust and affective commitment as energizing forces for export performance

This study explores the effects of trust, commitment, relation-oriented competencies and entrepreneurial competencies on export performance. Using survey data from 134 exporting organizations located in the south of the Netherlands, a conceptual model is tested in which trust and affective commitment act as energizing forces for the development of competencies that have a positive effect on export performance. The main difference between this approach and other models is that affective commitment is hypothesized to have an indirect effect on performance, rather than a direct effect. This prediction is borne out by the data, which indicates that the role of trust and affective commitment in relational models of export performance may need to be reconsidered.     

Release the constraints: Solving the problems of export financing in troublesome times

Export growth is seen by governments as being a key to economic recovery. In the United States, the Obama Administration pledged to double exports by the year 2015. To gain greater insights into exporting as an engine for growth, we look to export lenders to understand the contextual changes in export lending, as well as priorities in evaluating exporters. Findings from a study of export lenders on the lender referral list of the Export-Import Bank of the United States suggest that changes in the financial industry's structure over the last two decades, coupled with the economic recession, have motivated policy—at both the lending firm and governmental level—that hampers the ability of exporting to contribute to economic recovery. Further, the findings suggest that current lender policy encourages a focus on short-term returns rather than an exporter's long-term strategic position in the market. Lender preferences, in addition to governmental policies increasing regulation of the financial sector, place significant constraints on economic recovery. Thus, we call for key lender and governmental policy changes that could release industry constraints and unleash the export engine for economic recovery.     

Geographic export diversification: Determinants and their link with export performance

This study examines company‐specific factors that may help explain the choice of an export‐market strategy and explores how the selected export strategy contributes to explaining company's export performance (XP). Concentrating on a specific area within a broad spectrum of export behavior analysis has enabled us to examine these factors in greater depth. The results of our research, which was carried out using a sample comprising Spanish exporting companies, show a firm's size, a firm's age, and a firm's greater foreign ownership in its share capital are all determining factors for adopting a strategy geared to export‐market diversification. A greater level of investment in R&D and greater international commitment are also important in this regard. We suggest reinforcing these two factors because there is evidence of a better XP among firms that have a wider range of foreign markets.     

Implications of Firm Controllable Factors on Export Growth

The need to stimulate export activity of U.S. companies has motivated research on export behavior of firms. Based on the strategic export model, this study attempts to investigate firm controllable factors that stimulate export growth. A survey of 640 small and medium sized manufacturing firms engaged in exporting showed that having a high commitment to exporting, having a possitive attitude toward exporting by placing less importance on perceived barriers to exporting (or export growth), having a customized product adaptation policy and willingness to modify the product, and seeking outside export assistance contribute to export success measured by export growth. International market expansion strategy did not seem to be associate with export growth.     

Do export status and export intensity increase firm performance?

This study examines the effects of export status and export intensity on the performance of firms in Ghana. Our measures of performance include productivity and profitability. Using the Regional Project on Enterprise Development (RPED) dataset covering the period 1991–2002, the results of this study indicate that export status and export intensity have positive effects on productivity, confirming the learning‐by‐exporting hypothesis. Competition on the international market exposes exporting firms to new technologies, and this has the potential of increasing their productivity. Thus, economic policy initiatives should be directed at encouraging firms to enter the export market. Existing exporters should also be motivated to intensify their exporting efforts by exporting more of their output to foreign markets. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Ghanaian exporters’ international experience and performance: the mediating role of export commitment

The existing literature provides mixed findings regarding the impact of international experience on export performance. One of the reasons for these mixed findings could be the intervening mechanisms that influence international experience – export performance relationships. We examine one factor, namely export commitment. Drawing from the resource-based view, we examine how the interaction between international experience and export commitment enhances export performance. Based on a sample of 116 Ghanaian exporting firms, the findings suggest that export commitment significantly mediates the association between international experience and export performance. We make two key contributions: first, we provide understanding of how international experience contributes to export performance – through enhancing export commitment. Second, we provide evidence from an under researched geographical context, namely Ghana. Thus, we extend the existing literature to sub-Saharan African countries.     

Firms and the global crisis: French exports in the turmoil

Global trade contracted quickly and severely during the global crisis. This paper uses a unique dataset of French firms to match export data to firm-level credit constraints and shows that most of the 2008–2009 trade collapse was due to the unprecedented demand shock and to product characteristics. While all firms have been affected by the crisis, the effect on large firms has been mainly at the intensive margin and has resulted in a smaller portfolio of products being offered to export destinations. The effect on smaller exporters has been to reduce the range of destinations served or to stop exporting altogether. Credit constraints have been an added aggravation for firms active in high financial dependence sectors. However, the share of credit constrained firms is small and their number has not increased hugely during the crisis, with the result that the overall impact of credit constraints on trade has been limited.     

The Relative Impact of Market Orientation and Entrepreneurship on Export Performance: Do We Really Know Enough?

ABSTRACT

The impact of international corporate entrepreneurship and market orientation on firm performance is well acknowledged in the literature, but their relative influence on the performance of exporting firms remains inconclusive. This study seeks to help clarify the influence of these organizational resources by introducing a third complementary resource, namely commitment to learning. The results, based on data obtained from a survey of exporters in China, show that commitment to learning mediates the relationship between market orientation and entrepreneurship. It was also found that market orientation could be a double-edged sword for exporters in that it can enhance export satisfaction through entrepreneurship, but it can also have negative impact on profit.     

A Firm-level Examination of the Exports Puzzle: Why East Asian Exports Didn't Increase After the 1997–1998 Financial Crisis

We analyse a detailed panel dataset on Indonesian manufacturing firms to characterise the exports puzzle: the surprising absence of export-led growth after the massive currency devaluation during the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis. Our results show that, consistent with trade theory predictions following better terms of trade, entry into export markets increased dramatically. In conflict with the same predictions, however, many pre-crisis exporters quit exporting. Thus stagnant export growth cannot be attributable to a lack of entrepreneurial ambition or activity amongst would-be exporters. Rather, it apparently resulted from constraints prohibiting continued exporting by pre-crisis exporters. Managerial reports of perceived constraints reveal little about why so many firms ceased exporting. However, ‘better’ firms, as proxied by foreign ownership, involvement in research and development, or investment in training, were more likely to continue exporting post-crisis.     

Firm-level export duration: The importance of market-specific ownership linkages

This paper explores the impact of a firm's market-specific ownership linkages and trade complementarities on different dimensions of its exporting longevity. Unlike previous studies that were mostly based on country-product-level data, this paper uses transaction-level trade data on the population of firms in Slovenia in the 2002–11 period, matched with detailed origin/direction of inward/outward FDI information to determine a firm's integration in international production networks. Our results indicate that firm's bilateral inward and outward FDI flows with an export-destination country have a strong positive effect on a firm's export survival in that market. Importance of market-specific ownership linkages for export duration is exclusively driven by intermediate goods which suggests prolonged export duration through production network involvement. However, the perseverance effect of bilateral FDI ties on export spells has been weakened during the crisis period. We find pronounced market- and product-related trade complementarities as either exporting or importing experience with the relevant market/product substantially improves the chances of a product–market export spell continuing. Finally, the risk of exports termination is lower for a firm's core export products.     

Bank credit,public financial incentives,tax financial incentives and export performance during the global financial crisis

This paper investigates the extent to which access to credit, public financial incentives and tax financial incentives affect export performance using the EU-EFIGE/Bruegel-Unicredit data set, covering firms within Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Hungary and the UK during the 2008 global financial crisis. The results show that firms receiving credit or benefiting from public financial incentives display higher export intensity and export a greater number of product lines compared to those that did not, especially in countries with better access to credit and/or financial incentives during the crisis. Further, firms benefiting from tax financial incentives show a better export performance compared to those that did not, regardless of the degree of access to credit and/or financial incentives in the country in which they operate. In addition, the effect of access to credit and public finance incentives on export performance is found to be size-dependent, while the effect of tax financial incentives is not. We suggest that governments should promote publicly funded financial incentives along with conventional schemes, such as R&D subsidies, to promote exports, particularly during a period of financial crisis.     

Does external technology acquisition determine export performance? Evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms

Although technology profile has been one of the key determinants of firms’ export performance in the international business literature, most research has focused on only the role of internal technology efforts rather than the role of external technology. This study thus aims to extend our understanding of the determinants of export performance by examining the impact of the inter-organizational dimension of innovation strategy to export performance, which has been ignored in the prevailing “strategy tripod” perspective of exporting research. This study is based on a sample of 141 Chinese indigenous manufacturing firms that engaged in inward technology licensing between 2000 and 2003. The empirical results indicate that external technology acquisitions positively influence Chinese firms’ export performance. Moreover the exporting performance of using external technology varies depending on the their sources (domestic and foreign). The exporting firms that acquired technology from foreign countries outperformed those relied on domestically developed technology.     

The great trade collapse and the Spanish export miracle: Firm‐level evidence from the crisis

We provide novel evidence on the microstructure of international trade during the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent global recession by exploring a rich firm‐level data set from Spain. The focus of our analysis is on changes at the extensive and intensive firm‐level margins of trade, as well as on performance differences (jobs, productivity and firm survival) across firms that differ in their export status. We find no adverse effects of the financial crisis on foreign market entry or exit, but a considerable increase in the export intensity of firms after the financial crisis. Moreover, we find that exporters were more resilient to the crisis than non‐exporters. Finally, while exporters showed a significantly more favourable development of total factor productivity after 2009 than non‐exporters, aggregate productivity declined substantially in a large number of industries in Spanish manufacturing. We also briefly explore two factors that might help explain the surprisingly strong export performance of Spain in the aftermath of the great trade collapse: improved aggregate competitiveness due to internal and external devaluation and a substitutive relationship between domestic and foreign sales at the firm level.     

金融危机下关于我国出口退税功能定位的思考

2008年爆发的全球性的金融危机对我国的出口业影响巨大,全年外贸出口总额增速放缓,出口形势严峻.为了刺激出口,中国政府出台了一系列政策,以减轻企业面临的经营压力.然而,提高出口退税率并不能从根本上解决出口面临的问题,因为关键问题在于我国企业的科技研发能力不足,企业科技创新意识不强,产品科技含量低,国际竞争力不强.保证出口稳定增长的根本途径是,促进企业科技创新,增强企业科技研发能力以及加强知识产权保护.     

Trade Causes of the Asian Crisis: The Malaysian Experience

Prior to the onset of the Asian financial crisis there was a deterioration in the external trade position of most countries that were affected by the Asian currency crisis. However, little is known about why this occurred. This paper aims to identify the causes of a slowdown in export growth in Malaysia. While misaligned exchange rates have been widely cited as a cause of the slowdown in East Asia; in the Malaysian context at least a vulnerability to the downturn in the electronic cycle could also be a major factor leading to poor export performance. Using the US/yen dollar rate as a proxy for exchange rate misalignment and US total new orders for electronics as a proxy for global electronics demand, cointegration analysis was used to establish the likely causes of a slowdown in Malaysia's export performance. The empirical evidence suggests that the coincidence of exchange rate misalignment with a downturn in the global electronics demand cycle was responsible for the sharp deterioration in export performance.     

The internationalization of new and small firms: A resource-based view

This paper seeks to enhance understanding of the internationalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study focuses upon the following issues: Can the characteristics of principal founders, businesses, and the external environment at one point in time be used to `explain' at a later date whether a firm is still an exporter or a nonexporter, whether exporting firms are larger in size than nonexporting firms, whether exporting firms report superior performance than nonexporting firms, and whether exporting firms are more likely to survive than nonexporting firms? To address these questions, this study draws upon a sample of 621 manufacturing, construction, and services businesses located in twelve contrasting environments in Great Britain surveyed first in 1990/91 and then re-interviewed in 1997.A resource-based view is reviewed to identify the range of factors encouraging some owner-managed SMEs to enter export markets. Four categories of human and financial capital are examined: general human capital resources, the principal founder's management know-how, the principal founder's specific industry know-how, and a principal founder's ability to obtain financial resources that can act as a buffer against random shocks. Variables relating to resource availability in the external environment were also collected and considered control variables. Previous studies have highlighted substantial industry differences in the propensity for businesses to enter export markets as well as to survive. The principal industrial activity of each business in 1990/91 was, therefore, considered a control variable.Variables collected during the 1990/91 survey were selected to explain variations in the propensity to export reported by surviving independent firms in 1997. After elimination of missing values, the working sample was reduced to 116 independent firms for this study (86 nonexporters and 30 exporters in 1997). In addition, the 21 variables were selected to explain variations in business size in 1997, profit performance relative to competitors reported in 1997, changes in employment over the 1990/91 to 1997 period, and business survival over the 1990/91 to 1997 period (213 survivors and 395 nonsurvivors).Multivariate statistical analysis confirmed that previous experience of selling goods or services abroad is a key influence encouraging firms to export. Businesses with older principal founders, with more resources, denser information and contact networks, and considerable management know-how are significantly more likely to be exporters. Further, businesses with principal founders that had considerable industry-specific knowledge are markedly more likely to be exporters. Businesses principally engaged in the service sectors and those located in urban areas are significantly less likely to be exporters.A key finding of this study is that the explanatory variables significantly associated with the propensity to export sales abroad are not the same as those significantly associated with selected size and performance measures. The resource-based explanatory variables selected fail to significantly detect employment-growing firms over the 1990/91 to 1997 period. They also fail to significantly distinguish surviving independent firms from nonsurviving firms.Results from this study will provide policy-makers and practitioners with additional insights into the key resource-based factors associated with the decision by new and small independent firms to export sales abroad. Practitioners and policy-makers can focus upon the characteristics of principal founders, businesses, and the external environment to predict the subsequent propensity of an independent firm to be an exporter. Policy-makers and practitioners who want more new and small firms to export outside their local areas may prefer to target their resources and assistance to the relatively smaller proportion of firms that have the business and principal founder profiles that are significantly associated with a firm being an exporter.     

Standards and export performance in developing countries: Evidence from Pakistan

Several studies have analyzed the exporting pattern and performance of firms located in a developing country. However, there is limited work on the impact of standards on the performance of developing country exporting firms. This paper uses data from Pakistan to assess the effects of ISO 9000 certification on export sales and share of exports (relative to domestic and export sales) for textiles and the agro-food sector. As certification is not randomly assigned but there is ‘self-selection into treatment’, we use propensity matching methods to estimate the causal effect of certification on the change in the firms' value of export sales between 2000 and 2004. The results show that export performance is positively correlated with ISO 9000 certification.     

UK export assistance: Are we supporting the best programmes?

This article provides empirical evidence to show that differences exist in how UK exporters rate factors in their export marketing effort between: (1) those that are believed to be desired by importers; (2) the possibility for improving performance of these factors by a change in emphasis by people in the exporting firms; and (3) what international business assistance is actually requested by firms. It then looks at differences between firms based on their level of involvement in exporting, i.e. stage of internationalization, and the extent to which they are successful. It therefore substantially builds upon previous research by showing that there are differences between the factors that firms believe are desirable to importers and how their performance could improve with the emphasis and assistance of internal and external change agents. Furthermore, it shows that exporting firms should not be seen as homogeneous and that significant differences exist between firms based on their level of internationalization and their level of success.

In this way, the study has implications for UK policy makers insofar as it questions the idea that export promotion policies should be standardized, and offers evidence to support the view that firms with different characteristics actually require different kinds of support.     

External environment and the moderating role of export market orientation

This research has two main objectives. The first is to fill the knowledge gap on the role which the external environment plays in the strategic behavior of exporting companies, taking into account the psychological distances between the domestic and foreign markets. The second aim is to clarify the role that market orientation plays in export activity, since the literature review shows conflicting results. The study provides insight into these issues through hypothesis testing of a conceptual model using a sample of 212 Spanish exporting companies. The results lead to two major conclusions: (a) in turbulent environments, exporting firms adapting the marketing mix program to the needs of foreign markets obtain a better export performance in highly competitive and psychologically distant markets; (b) although market orientation has a direct and positive effect on export performance, its main role is to support strategic decision making in exporting companies. In addition, market orientation moderates the relationship between marketing mix adaptation and export performance.