Firm-level export performance assessment: Review, evaluation, and development

Export performance is one of the most widely researched but least understood and most contentious areas of international marketing. To some extent, this problem can be ascribed to difficulties in conceptualizing, operationalizing, and measuring the export performance construct, often leading to inconsistent and conflicting results. This study reviews and evaluates more than 100 articles of pertinent empirical studies to assess and critique export performance measurements. Based on gaps identified in this evluation, guidelines for export performance measure development are advanced, suggesting, however, a contingency approach in their application. Several conclusions and implications for export strategy and future research are derived from this analysis.

[1]  Barr Rosenberg,et al.  Error Rates in CRSP and Compustat Data Bases and their Implications , 1974 .

[2]  Naveen Donthu,et al.  Implications of Firm Controllable Factors on Export Growth , 1993 .

[3]  F. Seringhaus.  Comparative Marketing Behaviour of Canadian and Austrian High-Tech Exporters , 1993 .

[4]  Gopala Ganesh,et al.  Impact of Domestic Recession on Export Marketing Behaviour , 1990 .

[5]  T. Madsen.  Executive Insights: Managerial Judgment of Export Performance , 1998 .

[6]  Yoo S. Yang,et al.  Impact of Export Market Expansion Strategy on Export Performance , 1990 .

[7]  C. Christensen,et al.  An Empirical Investigation of the Factors Influencing Exporting Success of Brazilian Firms , 1987 .

[8]  Dave Crick,et al.  An investigation into the targeting of UK export assistance , 1995 .

[9]  Charles T. Crespy,et al.  Contrasting export strategies: A discriminant analysis study of excellent exporters , 1993 .

[10]  Helmut Kasper,et al.  On a Theory of Export Performance: Personal and Organizational Determinants of Export Trade Activities Observed in Small and Medium-Sized Firms , 1991 .

[11]  K. Simmonds,et al.  The first export order: a marketing innovation , 1968 .

[12]  Thomas H. Becker,et al.  Correlates of Competitive Export Performance , 1990 .

[13]  A. Lewin,et al.  Determining organizational effectiveness: another look, and an agenda for research , 1986 .

[14]  N. Piercy.  Export strategy, markets and competition , 1982 .

[15]  Sharon V. Thach,et al.  Pricing and Financing Practices of Industrial Exporting Firms , 1991 .

[16]  B. Schlegelmilch,et al.  The influence of managerial characteristics on different measures of export success , 1987 .

[17]  Kerry L. McLellan,et al.  The Performance Characteristics of Canadian versus U.K. Exporters in Small and Medium Sized Firms , 1993 .

[18]  Cok Ouwerkerk,et al.  An Inquiry into Successful Exporting , 1991 .

[19]  R. Jacobson.  Unobservable Effects and Business Performance , 1990 .

[20]  Tage Koed Madsen,et al.  Successful Export Marketing Management: Some Empirical Evidence , 1989 .

[21]  Tim Ambler,et al.  Successful Export Practice , 1994 .

[22]  Anthony C. Koh.  Relationships among Organisational Characteristics, Marketing Strategy and Export Performance , 1991 .

[23]  J. Farley,et al.  International Marketing: The Neglect Continues , 1980 .

[24]  S. Slater,et al.  Management Influences on Export Performance: A Review of the Empirical Literature 1978‐1988 , 1989 .

[25]  R. Kaplan,et al.  The balanced scorecard--measures that drive performance. , 2015, Harvard business review.

[26]  D. Whetten,et al.  Organizational Effectiveness: A Comparison of Multiple Models , 1984 .

[27]  B. Chakravarthy.  Measuring strategic performance , 1986 .

[28]  L. G. Hrebiniak,et al.  Organizational Adaptation: Strategic Choice and Environmental Determinism. , 1985 .

[29]  Sridhar N. Ramaswami,et al.  Reconciling diverse measures of performance : A conceptual framework and test of a methodology , 1994 .

[30]  J. Johanson,et al.  The Mechanism of Internationalisation , 1990 .

[31]  Ram Subramanian,et al.  Organizational Determinants of Exporting: Conceptual, Methodological, and Empirical Insights , 1998 .

[32]  Robert Jacobson,et al.  The Validity of ROI as a Measure of Business Performance , 1987 .

[33]  Tage Koed Madsen,et al.  Empirical Export Performance Studies: A Review of Conceptualizations and Findings , 1987 .

[34]  Aviv Shoham.  Marketing-Mix Standardization : Determinants of Export Performance , 1996 .

[35]  Chris Styles.  Export Performance Measures in Australia and the United Kingdom , 1998 .

[36]  G. M. Naidu,et al.  Are the Stages of Internationalization Empirically Supportable , 1993 .

[37]  A. Rocha,et al.  Aggressive and Passive Exporters: A Study in the Brazilian Furniture Industry , 1990 .

[38]  Anne S. Tsui,et al.  A Multiple-Constituency Model of Effectiveness: An Empirical Examination at the Human Resource Subunit Level. , 1990 .

[39]  P. Tansuhaj,et al.  Environmental Influences and Decision-Making Uncertainty in Export Channels: Effects on Satisfaction and Performance , 1994 .

[40]  John C. Narver,et al.  Market Orientation and the Learning Organization , 1995 .

[41]  E. Biggadike,et al.  The Contributions of Marketing To Strategic Management , 1981 .

[42]  Stefan Mueller,et al.  International Orientation as a Precondition for Export Success , 1990 .

[43]  Robert T. Hamilton,et al.  The export performance of smaller firms: a multi-case study approach , 1993 .

[44]  Gregory E. Osland,et al.  The EXPERF Scale: A Cross-National Generalized Export Performance Measure , 1998 .

[45]  Richard M. Steers.  Problems in the Measurement of Organizational Effectiveness , 1975 .

[46]  J. E. Mcconnell.  The Export Decision: An Empirical Study of Firm Behavior , 1979 .

[47]  Hartmut H. Holzmüller,et al.  The Decision-Maker and Export Activity: A Cross-National Comparison of the Foreign Orientation of Austrian Managers 1 , 1990 .

[48]  Michael R. Czinkota,et al.  Executive Insights: A National Export Assistance Policy for New and Growing Businesses , 1994 .

[49]  S. Tamer Cavusgil,et al.  Internal Determinants of Export Marketing Behavior: An Empirical Investigation , 1981 .

[50]  Robert E. Hoskisson,et al.  International Diversification: Effects on Innovation and Firm Performance in Product-Diversified Firms , 1997 .

[51]  Gregory G. Dess,et al.  Porter's (1980) Generic Strategies as Determinants of Strategic Group Membership and Organizational Performance , 1984 .

[52]  Jeffrey D. Ford,et al.  Conceptual Issues of Linkage in the Assessment of Organizational Performance , 1982 .

[53]  S. Samiee,et al.  Currency Choice in Industrial Pricing: A Cross-National Evaluation , 1998 .

[54]  R. Golembiewski.  Macro organizational behavior , 1980 .

[55]  S. Samiee,et al.  A Model for Assessing Performance in Small U.S. Exporting Firms , 1991 .

[56]  D. Schendel,et al.  STRATEGIC REFERENCE POINT THEORY , 1996 .

[57]  Harper W. Boyd,et al.  Readings for Marketing Students@@@Contemporary American Marketing , 1963 .

[58]  横井 義則.  書評 Masaaki Kotabe and Kristiaan Helsen,Global Marketing Managememt,John Wiley&Sons,Inc.,1998 , 1999 .

[59]  R. E. Shrieves,et al.  Towards Reconciliation of Market Performance Measures to Strategic Management Research , 1986 .

[60]  K. Cameron,et al.  Organizational Life Cycles and Shifting Criteria of Effectiveness: Some Preliminary Evidence , 1983 .

[61]  S. Cavusgil,et al.  Export Marketing Strategies in the British Clothing Industry , 1986 .

[62]  Adrian B. Ryans.  Strategic Market Entry Factors and Market Share Achievement in Japan , 1988 .

[63]  Luis R. Gomez-Mejia,et al.  The role of human resources strategy in export performance: A longitudinal study , 1988 .

[64]  J. Pearce,et al.  The impact of grand strategy and planning formality on financial performance , 1987 .

[65]  P. Rajan Varadarajan,et al.  An Analysis of the Market Share-Profitability Relationship , 1993 .

[66]  M. Deutsch,et al.  Research Methods in Social Relations , 1952 .

[67]  Stuart Laverick,et al.  Measuring corporate performance , 1994 .

[68]  L. Phillips.  Assessing Measurement Error in Key Informant Reports: A Methodological Note on Organizational Analysis in Marketing , 1981 .

[69]  Refik Culpan.  Export behavior of firms: Relevance of firm size , 1989 .

[70]  S. Jain.  International Marketing Management , 1987 .

[71]  Anil Menon,et al.  A Model of Marketing Knowledge use within Firms , 1992 .

[72]  Paul W. Beamish,et al.  EXPORTING FOR SUCCESS AS A SMALL CANADIAN MANUFACTURER , 1987 .

[73]  Michael L. Ursic,et al.  Classification of exporting firms according to sales and growth into a share matrix , 1991 .

[74]  G. Huber,et al.  Retrospective reports of strategic‐level managers: Guidelines for increasing their accuracy , 1985 .

[75]  Leonidas C. Leonidou,et al.  Export stimulation research: Review, evaluation and integration , 1995 .

[76]  P. Rajan Varadarajan,et al.  Standardization versus Adaptation of International Marketing Strategy: An Empirical Investigation , 1993 .

[77]  K. Cameron.  Effectiveness as Paradox: Consensus and Conflict in Conceptions of Organizational Effectiveness , 1986 .

[78]  M. Hitt,et al.  A Mid-Range Theory of the Interactive Effects of International and Product Diversification on Innovation and Performance , 1994 .

[79]  Gregory G. Dess,et al.  Measuring organizational performance in the absence of objective measures: The case of the privately-held firm and conglomerate business unit , 1984 .

[80]  Thomas V. Bonoma,et al.  Marketing Performance Assessment , 1988 .

[81]  Saeed Samiee,et al.  Influence of firm size on export planning and performance , 1990 .

[82]  Cynthia Fraser,et al.  Participation in the International Marketplace by US Manufacturing Firms , 1990 .

[83]  Luis V. Dominguez,et al.  Determinants of LDC Exporters' Performance: A Cross-National Study , 1993 .

[84]  J. Child.  Organizational Structure, Environment and Performance: The Role of Strategic Choice , 1972 .

[85]  Robert A. Peterson,et al.  Empirical Research in International Marketing: 1976–1982 , 1984 .

[86]  Robert W. Ruekert,et al.  Marketing's Role in the Implementation of Business Strategies: A Critical Review and Conceptual Framework , 1987 .

[87]  Nigel F. Piercy,et al.  Identifying Managerial Influences on Exporting: Past Research and Future Directions , 1998 .

[88]  Vijay Mahajan,et al.  Contemporary Perspectives on Strategic Market Planning , 1990 .

[89]  Nobuaki Namiki.  A Taxonomic Analysis of Export Marketing Strategy , 1994 .

[90]  Gerald Albaum,et al.  International Marketing and Export Management , 2001 .

[91]  Shaoming Zou,et al.  The determinants of export performance: a review of the empirical literature between 1987 and 1997 , 1998 .

[92]  C. Craig,et al.  International Marketing Research , 1983 .

[93]  G. Day,et al.  Managerial Representations of Competitive Advantage , 1994 .

[94]  George S. Day,et al.  Assessing Advantage: A Framework for Diagnosing Competitive Superiority , 1988 .

[95]  Stan Reid,et al.  FIRM INTERNATIONALIZATION, TRANSACTION COSTS AND STRATEGIC CHOICE , 1983 .

[96]  T. Harcar,et al.  Managerial perceptions of the adequacy of export incentive programs: Implications for export-led economic development policy , 1995 .

[97]  L. J. Bourgeois,et al.  Strategy and Environment: A Conceptual Integration , 1980 .

[98]  P. Matthyssens,et al.  ASSESSING EXPORT PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT , 1996 .

[99]  N. Piercy,et al.  Sources of competitive advantage in high performing exporting companies , 1998 .

[100]  Robert G. Cooper,et al.  The Impact of Export Strategy on Export Sales Performance , 1985 .

[101]  Aviv Shoham,et al.  Export Performance: A Conceptualization and Empirical Assessment , 1998 .

[102]  D. Tookey.  Factors Associated With Success In Exporting , 1964 .

[103]  S. Cavusgil,et al.  Marketing Strategy-Performance Relationship: An Investigation of the Empirical Link in Export Market Ventures , 1994 .