To read this content please select one of the options below:

Export marketing assistance and early internationalizing firm performance: Does export commitment matter?

Anisur R. Faroque (Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand)
Yoshi Takahashi (Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation, Hiroshima University, Higashi Hiroshima, Japan)

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics

ISSN: 1355-5855

Article publication date: 8 June 2015

1297

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contingent relationship between government marketing assistance for export and the performance of early internationalizing firms in a developing country’s low-tech industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors employ hierarchical multiple regression based on the data obtained from Bangladesh, a south Asian developing country and a leading exporter of apparel products worldwide. The authors used a sample of 224 early internationalizing apparel firms to test the hypotheses.

Findings

Research describes the relationship between export assistance and performance as direct. Recently, some researchers have suggested moderators between them. The authors argue that the relationship between the two is contingent on the level of export commitment. The authors find that neither informational nor experiential marketing assistance is directly related to export performance. The relationship between informational assistance and export performance is significantly, but (unexpectedly) negatively, moderated by export commitment. The effect of experiential assistance is positively, but only marginally, moderated by export commitment.

Originality/value

Contrary to researchers’ overarching focus on a direct relationship, the authors investigate the moderation on the relationship between export informational and experiential marketing assistance, and early internationalizing firms’ performance in a developing country’s low-tech industry setting. The authors use export commitment as the moderator; it is one of the most important internal determinants of export performance and extremely relevant in early internationalizing firms. The differential impact of informational and experiential assistance provides additional insights.

Keywords

Citation

Faroque, A.R. and Takahashi, Y. (2015), "Export marketing assistance and early internationalizing firm performance: Does export commitment matter?", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 421-443. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-03-2014-0045

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles