Exporting and Environmental Performance: A Firm‐level Productivity Analysis

The objective of this paper is to study empirically the relationship between export orientation and firms’ environmental performance from different perspectives of trade theory. On the one hand, productivity heterogeneity is analysed within the new trade‐theoretical framework. The approach followed is to determine firm‐level productivity components, including an environmental productivity indicator (as a performance measure) and taking as reference the Spanish food industry. On the other hand, from the traditional comparative advantage perspective, this study also develops an export performance model to evaluate the effect of technology, environmental variables and factor endowment on exporting. The results show greater environmental productivity and corporate efficiency for export‐oriented firms. Our findings also determine the positive effect on firms’ export intensity of environmental performance as a factor of specialisation and technology proficiency.     

Outsourcing: National‐ and firm‐level implications

As the pace of outsourcing has continued to accelerate, so too has interest in the topic on the part of researchers, practitioners, and policy makers. Despite this increasing interest, there remains a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the outsourcing phenomenon. In particular, its effects on organizations and nations remain the subject of intense debate. In this commentary, we address this topic by discussing what constitutes outsourcing, public policy concerns about outsourcing, governmental responses to outsourcing, and a variety of firm‐level issues related to outsourcing. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Exporting and Economic Performance: Firm‐level Evidence of Spanish Manufacturing

In a previous paper, Delgado, Fariñas and Ruano (2002) report TFP differences between exporters and non‐exporters on the basis of a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms. In this paper, we extend the previous analysis in three directions using a similar data set. First, we investigate additional economic performance differences between exporters and non‐exporters. Second, we measure TFP differences estimating production functions that control for unobserved heterogeneity and simultaneity bias. Third, we explore the self‐selection and learning‐by‐exporting hypothesis as explanations for the greater performance of exporters. With respect to the results, we confirm that many indicators of economic performance such as productivity, size, wages and innovation are greater in exporting firms. Furthermore, TFP differences between exporters and non‐exporters estimated with parametric methods are remarkably similar to those estimated using index numbers. Finally, performance differences and transition patterns between the export market and the domestic market indicate higher performance for entering exporters with respect to non‐exporters at the moment of entry. We find evidence of selection in the entry and the exit side of the export market. One of the basic results that we obtain indicates that after controlling for self‐selection, the productivity growth of entering exporters does not significantly change with respect to non‐exporters. As the evidence we find indicates no systematic changes in performance between non‐exporters and exporters after entry takes place, we do not confirm the learning‐by‐exporting hypothesis.     

Productivity and Learning‐by‐exporting: A Firm‐level Analysis of Indian Manufacturing

In this paper, we examine whether firms become productive by learning through exporting. To this end, we estimate the production function using microdata of Indian manufacturing firms operating in the period 1991–2001. In contrast to studies on developed countries, our results provide evidence that Indian manufacturing firms are experiencing a rise in productivity through entering export markets and thus experience the learning effect. We also find that there is a productivity rise prior to exporting. Therefore, our results also support the self‐selection mechanism for exporting.     

Firm R&D,Absorptive Capacity and Learning by Exporting: Firm‐level Evidence from China

The absorptive capacity of firms developed through R&D promotes learning by exporting. In this paper, we estimate the instantaneous and long‐run productivity effects of exporting on the universe of Chinese manufacturing firms. We find that exporting has very different productivity effects for firms with different pre‐export R&D status. It has large and lasting productivity effects for firms with pre‐export R&D, while it has little effects for firms without pre‐export R&D. Furthermore, the effect of exporting increases with the number of years of pre‐export R&D investment.     

Does Export Openness Increase Firm‐level Output Volatility?

There is a widespread concern that increased trade may lead to increased instability and thus risk at the firm level. Greater export openness can indeed affect firm‐level volatility by changing the exposure and the reaction of firms to macroeconomic developments. The net effect is ambiguous from a theoretical point of view. This paper provides firm‐level evidence on the link between openness and volatility. Using comprehensive data on more than 21,000 German manufacturing firms for the period 1980–2001, we analyse the evolution of firm‐level output volatility and the link between volatility and export openness. Our paper has three main findings. First, firm‐level output volatility is significantly higher than the level of aggregate volatility, but it displays similar patterns. Second, increased export openness lowers firm‐level output volatility. This effect is primarily driven by variations along the extensive margin, i.e. by the distinction between exporters and non‐exporters. Variations along the intensive margin, i.e. the volume of exports, tend to have a dampening impact on volatility as well. Third, small firms are more volatile than large firms.     

Exports and Productivity: A Survey of the Evidence from Firm‐level Data

While the role of exports in promoting growth in general, and productivity in particular, has been investigated empirically using aggregate data for countries and industries for a long time, only recently have comprehensive longitudinal data at the firm level been used to look at the extent and causes of productivity differentials between exporters and their counterparts which sell on the domestic market only. This paper surveys the empirical strategies applied, and the results produced, in 54 microeconometric studies with data from 34 countries that were published between 1995 and 2006. Details aside, exporters are found to be more productive than non‐exporters, and the more productive firms self‐select into export markets, while exporting does not necessarily improve productivity.     

Internationalisation and Economic Performance of Enterprises: Evidence from Polish Firm‐level Data

This article provides evidence on the relative performance of internationalised firms using Polish firm‐level data, spanning the period 1996–2005 and covering all medium and large enterprises. We distinguish between three modes of internationalisation: foreign direct investment, exporting and importing of capital goods. Our results point strongly at the superior performance of foreign affiliates vs domestic firms, exporters vs non‐exporters, and importers vs non‐importers: internationalised firms are larger, more capital intensive, pay higher wages and are more productive than purely domestic firms. Foreign ownership is the strongest factor accounting for gains from internationalisation. The premia from exporting are substantially lower, though also significantly positive. The performance of capital goods importers is also higher compared to non‐importers and is to some extent related to their involvement in other types of international activity. The results are robust to the choice of specification and productivity estimator. The analysed enterprises recorded a sizeable and broad‐based productivity improvement over the period under consideration. Not only the initial levels of productivity of exporters, importers and foreign affiliates were on average significantly higher that those of their non‐internationalised counterparts, but they also recorded faster productivity gains (manifested in increasing productivity premia), so that the discrepancies grew even larger. We also perform the analysis of productivity spillovers from internationalised firms onto own, downstream and upstream sectors. We find evidence of significant horizontal and backward spillovers from all three types of international activity. Our results suggest that trade externalities are rather of a horizontal nature, while those related to foreign direct investment operate mainly via backward linkages.     

Export Credit Guarantees and Export Performance: Evidence from Austrian Firm‐level Data

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 Austrian exporting firms for the year 2008. In a first step, we explore various determinants of export guarantee usage. Results suggest that firm size, being part of a multinational enterprise, exposure to revenue risk and R&D intensity are important factors. In a second step, we investigate the effects of export guarantees on export performance. Identification is achieved 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 per cent compared with the control group of non‐users.     

Consumer–Brand Relationships: A Contrast of Nostalgic and Non‐Nostalgic Brands

This research examined how consumer–brand relationships change when one contrasts brands perceived as nostalgic with brands perceived as non‐nostalgic. Paired comparisons of brands in six product categories revealed that brand attachment, self‐brand connections, and storytelling, as well as, the propensity to offer the brand as a gift and collect brand‐derived products, depend on the nostalgic status of the brand. On a sample of 606 consumers, the results showed that a brand's nostalgic status has a positive effect on attachment, self‐brand connections, and storytelling. These effects had not previously been considered in nostalgia research. Furthermore, the nostalgic status of a brand has positive effects in terms of intention to purchase the brand as a gift and collect brand‐derived products. Moreover, ANOVA results illustrate that consumer relationships with nostalgic brands are systematically stronger than with non‐nostalgic brands. Finally, results indicated that product category moderates all of the dimensions of brand relationships while gender does not.     

Quantitative Evaluation of the Determinants of Export and FDI: Firm‐level Evidence from Japan

Using firm‐level data for Japan, this paper examines the determinants of the export and foreign direct investment (FDI) decision. We contribute to the literature by employing a mixed logit model, i.e. a multinomial logit model with random intercepts and random coefficients, to incorporate any unobserved firm heterogeneity and by paying special attention to the quantitative significance of the determinants. We find that while the impact of productivity on the export and FDI decision is positive and statistically significant, it is economically negligible. The effect of firm size, credit constraints and information spillovers from experienced firms is also small in magnitude. A quantitatively dominant determinant of the export and FDI decision is instead the prior status of firms in terms of internationalisation. In addition, the use of the mixed logit model enables us to find a substantial role of unobserved firm characteristics in internationalisation of the firm. These findings suggest that entry costs to foreign markets, which substantially vary in size across firms, play an important role in the export and FDI decision. In addition, given that the negligible effect of productivity and the dominant effect of prior status appear to be more prominent in Japan than in some other countries, this study helps highlight the uniqueness of Japanese firms.     

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.     

Long‐Term Oriented Marketing Relationships and Ethical Conduct in Outsourcing Sector

The study evaluates the positive effect of long‐term oriented marketing relationship on ethical conduct from the perspective of the service provider (i.e., the agent‐firm), by integrating the relevant literature from relationship marketing, ethics, and long‐term orientation domains. The paper proposes that service providers that build relationship quality with their clients will display increased ethical conduct toward them. Specifically, the study examines the positive influence of the dimensions of relationship quality (that are relevant to the offshoring services context) that the service provider firm's employees undertake and their impact on ethical conduct. Overall, the results indicate that the commitment‐only full mediation model of relationship marketing variables on ethical conduct is a better representation than both direct‐effects model and other competing mediating models examined in this study. Fundamentally, it means that customer service officers should incorporate long‐term orientation and commitment in their principal–agent relationships that will provide the impetus for undertaking ethical behavior. The article concludes with a discussion and implications of the findings.     

The heterogeneous competitive effects of trade and foreign direct investment: Firm‐level evidence for European countries

This study evaluates the pro‐competitive effect of foreign market penetration with a broad firm‐level database that covers manufacturing industries in six European countries. The main contribution is the demonstration of the heterogeneous effects on host country competition of the two main channels of foreign market penetration that have been assigned fundamental differences by economic theory: imports and foreign direct investment. The results of dynamic estimates of firm‐level markups reveal a pro‐competitive effect of imports, while foreign direct investment shows no clear overall impact, suggesting a cancelling out of competitive pressure and spillovers. These findings matter for both future empirical research and policy considerations that must weigh the positive and negative effects of foreign market integration on the competitive environment and consumer welfare.     

Do Financial Constraints Matter for Foreign Market Entry? A Firm‐level Examination

Recent theoretical and empirical contributions stress the importance of financial development for international trade. This paper investigates whether financial constraints matter for foreign market entry at the firm level using dynamic panel data techniques. Dynamic Probit and Tobit models that account for state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity are used to analyse the effect of financial indicators on export activities. The empirical framework tests for heterogeneous effects among different quartiles of the size and productivity distribution, across previous exporters and potential starters, and across different types of industries as those are predicted by theoretical models. The empirical analysis is applied to a large panel dataset of French manufacturing firms over the years 1998–2005. The data contain a high share of small firms that are usually the most likely to be financially constrained. Although financial indicators are significantly correlated with export status and export share, there is no evidence that financial constraints have a direct impact on foreign market participation or sales in foreign markets once observed and unobserved firm heterogeneity is controlled for. This result is robust to using alternative estimation techniques and also holds for subgroups of firms that are more likely to face financial constraints and industries that are more dependent on financial factors.     

Exporters and Importers of Services: Firm‐Level Evidence on Italy

This work contributes to the growing literature on international trade in services at firm level. Our data set provides information on exports and imports of services (excluding transportation and travel) in 2008–09 for almost 3,000 Italian industrial and services firms, divided by partner country and type of service. We report a set of stylised facts on services trade and analyse the choice between export and foreign direct investment in services at the firm level. We find that the export and import of services are highly concentrated in just a few firms. Firm‐level variation in trade is positively correlated with firm size and productivity. Country‐level variation is to a large extent explained by the standard gravity variables: distance strongly reduces trade in services in spite of their intangibility. Smaller and less productive firms choose to export rather than sell through foreign affiliates, although there is some heterogeneity among service types.     

承接跨国服务外包与我国经济增长的相互作用研究——与制造外包的比较分析

跨国服务外包成为我国经济新的增长点。本文对我国服务外包与工业、服务业增长的关系进行协整检验和格兰杰因果检验,并将其对比于制造外包与GDP的关系,结果表明:服务外包对经济增长的促进作用大于制造外包,并且服务外包对工业的促进作用大于对服务业的促进作用;而经济增长对服务外包的推动作用不明显。因此,我国大力发展服务外包具有一定的现实意义。     

The DNA of the domestic value added (DVA) in exports: Firm‐level analysis of DVA in exports

This paper sheds light on the relationship between domestic value added in exports (DVA) and the different ways firms participate in GVCs by exploiting a detailed firm‐level data set for the whole population of Slovenian exporting firms for the period 2002–14. The paper draws attention to those firm characteristics that allow a greater share of DVA to be captured. Although reliance on industry‐level data from input–output tables is the most common way of doing this in the literature, this paper develops a method for estimating DVA in exports using firm‐level data by adapting the approach taken by Kee and Tang (2016). The paper finds that in terms of DVA, domestic‐owned exporting firms outperform more productive foreign‐owned firms and that firms not affiliated with permanent suppliers from abroad capture higher DVA in exports. Positive outcomes of DVA in exports can be observed, all else being equal, for firms with a larger share of intangible capital per worker and firms with a smaller share of exports based on imports of the same products. The results also show that when exporting more to less demanding markets, like the countries of former Yugoslavia, firms benefit more in terms of greater DVA gains in exports.     

全球服务业离岸外包:现状、动因及演变趋势

服务业离岸外包的快速发展反映了服务业全球转移的新趋势。服务离岸外包的发包国主要为发达国家,承接国主要为发展中国家。新一轮服务业的全球转移为我国调整产业结构,优化贸易结构提供了机遇。