| Chapter 2: | Theoretical Background |
2.3 Review of export performance literature
Export performance has been the subject of significant interest in the last three decades. Despite widespread research on export performance, it has remained one of the least understood areas of international marketing (Katsikeas et al. 2000). To some extent, this can be explained by problems in conceptualising, operationalising, and measuring the export performance construct, often leading to inconsistent and even conflicting results (Axinn 1988). Ultimately, it is almost impossible to ascertain whether variations in research findings are due to the independent variables or the great number of different export performance measures employed (Zou et al. 1998).
What stands out in the export performance literature is the multiplicity of views with respect to the determinants of export performance and the nature of relationships between these factors and export performance. A number of studies have attributed improvements in export performance to a firm’s export marketing strategy (Cooper and Kleinschmidt 1985; Christensen et al. 1987; Lee and Yang 1990; Cavusgil and Kirpalani 1993; Cavusgil and Zou 1994). Others studies have linked export success to organisational characteristics or to management factors (Christensen et al. 1987; Axinn 1988).
The nature of the relationships of these factors to export performance has introduced another area of disagreement. According to Cavusgil and Zou (1994), export performance is mainly determined by export marketing strategy and firm characteristics, like internal competence and commitment to export venture. They argued that product characteristics and some external factors, such as industry and export market characteristics, only affect export performance indirectly through their impact on export marketing strategy (Cavusgil and Zou 1994). In contrast, Madsen (1989) and Louter et al. (1991) argued that there are direct links between all internal and external factors and export performance. The literature in this area still demonstrates, with few exceptions, low levels of theoretical reasoning (Zou and Stan 1998).