Early international entrepreneurship in China: Extent and determinants

We use data on 3,948 Chinese firms obtained from the World Bank’s Investment Climate Private Enterprise Survey to investigate early international entrepreneurship (international new ventures) in China. The extent of early international entrepreneurship in China is significant: 62% of the exporting firms start export operations within 3 years. Foreign shareholders within the firm and an entrepreneur with previous exporting experience are noted to significantly increase the probability that a firm internationalizes early. We find marked differences in the behaviour of indigenous and foreign-invested firms, and between direct and indirect exporters. For example, for an indigenous firm the more foreign experience its entrepreneur has, the less likely it is to start exporting early. As far as indirect exporting is concerned, business networks are significant determinants of the extent of such exporting, but delays the internationalization process of indigenous firms. The more firms in China export, the more time their managers need to spend on government regulations, although perhaps counter-intuitively, this was not found to discourage exporting. Overall, the findings suggest that exporting by indigenous Chinese firms is often due to challenging or adverse domestic conditions.     

Analyzing Export Behavior Through Managerial Characteristics and Perceptions: A Multiple Case-Based Research

ABSTRACT

The decision-maker's role in international activity is crucial, particularly in the case of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, the extant literature on internationalization is characterized by a lack of consensus among scholars as to what constitutes the managerial factor in determining exporting. Therefore, this study focuses on the following issue: Which are the decision-maker's characteristics and perceptions that may influence the export behavior of SMEs? To address this main research question, a multiple-case study method is applied across four Spanish exporting SMEs. The findings show that high educational level, language skills, high-risk tolerance, innovativeness, as well as strongly perceived export stimuli compared to low and relatively easy to overcome export barriers positively influence the export involvement and development in these investigated SMEs. The study provides further insights into the research topic by jointly studying managerial characteristics and perceptions in the Spanish context where the exporting activities have not been as widely studied so far.     

Sources of competitive advantage in high performing exporting companies

The requirements for success in export market ventures are likely to differ not merely from the critical success factors in the domestic market, but also from the policies effective in the fully internationalized or global enterprise. Exporting activities are a vitally important area of international business, where the foundations for superior performance are not well understood. A recent study of export market ventures in the U.K. links superior exporting performance to the establishment of key competitive advantages, which may be traced to foundations in specific competencies (competitive skills in exporting) and capabilities (competitive resources in exporting). This simple model of the sources of superior export performance and this study's findings provide important insights for executives.     

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.     

Export Barriers and Strategic Grouping

Abstract

The purpose of our work is to investigate the export strategy of international business by explicitly comparing exporting firms with non-exporting ones. This task has been undertaken by having recourse to a very large sample with more than 55,000 registered Spanish enterprises from all commercial sectors. Using this sample, we try to demonstrate that exporters and non-exporters belong to different strategic groups, with different profit levels. The existence of three kinds of barriers (managerial, organisational and external) constrains migration of non-exporting enterprises to the exporting group. However, the conclusions herein presented point at some ways of avoiding these barriers.     

Exporting and Firm Size

Abstract

This paper examines the extent to which small U.S.-based exporters experience problems and difficulties in their export operations not faced by larger U.S.-based exporters. Subsequently, we focus upon the differences between small and large firms with respect to three general areas: the perceived difficulty of various export activities; the perceived helpfulness of various agencies/organizations to export operations; the perceived helpfulness of various actions the federal government has taken or could take with regard to exporting. In areas where we have found significant large-versus small-firm differences we try to provide explanations. Finally, we offer both general and specific recommendations directed at overcoming the problems we have identified in order to facilitate exporting, particularly by small firms.     

Foreign sourcing and exporting

The aim of this paper was analysing the role of sourcing intermediate inputs internationally on export decisions and distinguishing whether intermediates are sourced from firms belonging to the same business group or from independent suppliers. To analyse firms' export decisions, we use a specification that also accounts for sunk costs and accumulated experience in export markets (i.e., export market learning). We consider that importing intermediates might have direct and indirect effects (operating through enhanced productivity) on the export participation decision. The direct effects on exporting are isolated once we control for productivity and the effects of belonging to an international group. We use a manufacturing panel data set drawn from the Spanish Survey on Business Strategies (ESEE) for the period 2006–14. Both productivity and inward or outward FDI increase the probability of exporting. Moreover, our results uncover the existence of sunk costs and export market learning, and also the relevant role played by intermediate imports in firms' export choices. Their effects act both through the (indirect) channel of enhancing firms' productivity and through a direct effect related to product upgrading, more competitive selling prices or learning from the firm's import experience.     

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.     

The Effect of Flexibility on Export Venture Performance

Abstract

Although both international marketing theorists and practitioners have been expounding the importance of flexibility little or no research has been done to examine the effect of flexibility on export venture performance. Most of the research to date was directed towards examining the effect of flexibility on performance in the domestic context. Moreover, the studies in the literature also gave exclusive attention to the performance-enhancing effect of flexibility and ignored the moderating effects of organisational and environmental contingencies on the flexibility-performance relationship. This paper will present the results of a study that assessed the effect of flexibility on export performance.

The findings support the proposition that flexibility is significantly related to export performance but that environmental dynamism, legal forms of business ownership, international experience, control mechanism, and exporter-distributor cooperation have a moderating effect on the relationships between flexibility and export venture performance. The study also found that firms that were challenged by intense competitive rivalries, spent a lot of time and effort on monitoring foreign marketing activities, and had substantial cooperation with overseas distributors were more flexible in their manufacturing, marketing, financial, and organizational activities.     

Trade-Related Training for Trainers in Export Development and Promotion in Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop an appropriate training mechanism for the development of the export/international trade sectors in Sudan. One of the activity components identified was the training of trainers in exporting/international marketing in selected sectors. In an effort to develop the most useful export development training program, an intensive needs assessment study was undertaken. The results of the study suggest that groups of respondents who share similar characteristics can be identified and profiled, and based on similar levels knowledge and skills they will be subjected to an intensive type of short export development and promotion training. Upon receiving the necessary training, the trainers will then train trainees in the field of international trade and export development.     

Cooperation as a Mediator between ICT and Export Success

The use of new information and communication technologies has been reshaping the export paradigm for more than a decade and exponentially increasing the possibilities of the exporting companies in international markets. The Internet improves establishing contact with partners in other countries for trade, optimizes daily communication with them, and makes companies more efficient in finding information on the markets they are reaching. According to these implications, to what extent do new technologies have a positive impact on the success of companies abroad? Does the use of these technologies facilitate cooperation between exporters and trading partners in the export destination country? The purpose of this research is to examine the influence of Internet technology upon export success when companies use this technology to find relevant information on foreign markets, improve communication in the business process, and enhance contacts with customers and distributors in distant countries. This study reveals that cooperative relationships between export companies and their foreign customers/distributors have a mediating effect between ICT and export success. Moreover, a surprisingly low significance of using ICT to support sales activities and develop lasting business relationships on export success has been found.     

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.     

Segmenting U.S. firms for export development

In attempting to aid firms in their exporting efforts, various segmentation approaches have been developed by government agencies and research groups. Each of these segmentation schemes aims at the identification of specific export needs within different groups of firms. The four major approaches suggested in the literature propose to differentiate firms into groups based on the level of international activities, managerial attitudes, size, and service orientation of firms. The research presented in this article investigates these four segmentation approaches by applying them to common data collected from small and medium sized U.S. manufacturing firms and investigating their effectiveness in differentiating among groups of firms. The results indicate that the differentiation of firms according to their level of international activities is the most effective one of the four approaches investigated. Subsequently, various specific needs of exporting firms are presented and a redirection of current export promotion efforts is suggested.     

The Influence of the Provision of Online Channel Functions on Exporting Channel Performance: The Moderating Effect of International Experience

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of the provision of two online channel functions on exporting channel performance, using international experience as a moderating variable. The study setting is Taiwan. The results confirm that the provision of online communication and transaction functions can increase exporting channel performance. Moreover, international experience can better facilitate the effect of the provision of online transaction functions on exporters’ channel performance for less-experienced firms rather than for experienced firms. However, its facilitation reverses in course of the provision of online communication functions (albeit in a different direction than hypothesized).     

透析温州民营企业"走出去"模式

企业国际化经营主要从两个方面入手,即出口贸易与境外投资。温州民营企业“走出去”的模式有：合作出口式走出去、创建境外专业市场、国际连锁专卖、国外设立研发中心、与国际巨头强强合作、海外设立生产基地六种。温州民营企业理性地选择“走出去”模式,从产品输出到重视品牌输出,将“引进来”与“走出去”巧妙地结合起来等,表现了其特有的理性与成熟。     

Employing brand governance mechanisms with export channel partners: What are the performance consequences and contingent effects?

For decades leading international business scholars have assessed the benefits accruing from successful governance mechanisms. Although the critical importance of initiating and maintaining good relationships with export channel partners is recognized within the literature, there has been little research focus placed on the optimal approach for governing intangible aspects of these relationships. We offer the first integrated definition of export brand governance of channel partners (EBGoCP) and investigate its influence on export performance. Drawing from relational governance theory and contingency theory, we develop and test a model of the contingent effects of different country specific advantages and firm characteristics on the performance upshots of EBGoCP. Using survey data from UK exporters, our findings validate the hypothesized enhancing effects of EBGoCP on export performance outcomes. Furthermore, consistent with our contingency based predictions, we find country-of-origin-image, firm size and scope of exporting moderate the impact of EBGoCP on export performance. Along with providing fresh insights from the results, this study opens up a new stream of international business governance research and offers productive future research paths to follow.     

Determination of Export Channel Strategies–The Experience of New Zealand Firms

ABSTRACT

There are many issues which need to be considered when businesses decide to internationalise their operations. One of the issues is the choice of export channels. The choice of export channels has a decisive impact on a firm's international marketing program. Export channel decisions are well researched in many countries However little attention has been made to investigate the choice of export channels by New Zealand international marketers This study examines the factors influencing the choice of export channels of 115 New Zealand firms conducting business with Taiwan. The results suggest that marketer's choice of export channels is influenced by the host market's business system, market size of the industry in the host market, and the degree of produce differentiation. The host market's business system is revealed for the first time to be a factor influencing the choice of export channels.     

Learning by exporting under fast,short-term changes: The moderating role of absorptive capacity and foreign collaborative agreements

What are the consequences for innovation of fast, short-term changes in exporting activity? Building on the learning by exporting literature and using a sample of 880 Italian manufacturing firms over two successive time periods, our study reveals key asymmetries. First, a rapid increase in export breadth, but not in export depth, reduces the firm’s probability of developing new innovative outputs. Second, no such effects are found in the case of a decrease in firms’ exporting activity. Third, both absorptive capacity and foreign collaborative agreements facilitate the absorption of the shock occurring when firms experience a rapid increase in export breadth, but not when the rapid increase takes place in export depth. Theoretical and managerial implications emerge from this research.     

Strategically Assessing International Business Course-Specific Learning Aims

Abstract

During the past 30 years, there have been calls for universities and business schools to internationalize curriculum, students and faculty. As most U.S. business schools have added international components to their respective programs, the assessment of these programs was subsequently recommended from accreditation and competitive perspectives. To sustain competitiveness, business schools must expand their program assessment activities and rigorously conduct assessment at the course level as well. We propose a model of international business course assessment that links learning aims to delivery methods and reviews two separate approaches based on that model.     

Exporting and productivity in business services: Evidence from the United States

Does exporting make firms more productive, or do more productive firms choose to become exporters? This paper considers the link between exporting and productivity for a sample of firms in US business services. We find that larger, more productive firms are more likely to become exporters, but that these factors do not necessarily influence the extent of exporting. This conforms with previous literature that there is a self-selection effect into exporting. We then test for the effect of exporting on productivity levels after allowing for this selection effect. We model both the relationship between exporting and productivity, and a simultaneous relationship between export intensity and productivity after allowing for selection bias. In both cases we find an association, indicating that productivity is positively linked both to exporting and to increased exposure to international markets.