Barriers to export: the power of organisational factors

This paper aims to investigate the export strategy of international business by explicitly comparing exporting firms with the non‐exporting ones, given that they supposedly differ due to the presence of organizational export barriers.

This study uses a database with more than 55,000 registered enterprises from all commercial sectors to demonstrate that two strategic groups really exist: exporters and non‐exporters.

The findings support the existence of both groups, which differ significantly regarding three kinds of organizational factors that act as mobility barriers constraining migration of non‐exporting enterprises to the exporting group: size (total sales and number of employees), antiquity and export involvement.

The author's results explain why non‐exporters are less likely to evolve into regular exporting firms. This is an issue of paramount importance in international marketing, since the way these barriers are perceived by non‐exporters often determines their future engagement and performance in international business activities.

Firstly, the paper adds a new viewpoint in as far as both options – to export or not to export – are considered as alternative strategies, and, consequently, as alternative strategic groups. Secondly, this study adds further slant by calling upon the resources of a large database of enterprises that belongs to a particular country: Spain.