Enhancing Export Activities of Small and Medium Enterprises: A Case Study of Qatari SMEs

Abstract

Although there are various benefits for SMEs to expand their businesses to international markets, there are various obstacles that discourage them to move internationally, especially in emerging markets. This study focuses on the capacity building to enhance SME export activities in an emerging market. Even though the latest literature in the area of export performance have focused on firms from the emerging countries, studies in this area are still limited. Earlier research in this area has mostly focused solely on the determinants of exports performance from either internal factors, external factors or both without using adequately potential mediating factors which could affect export performance. This paper develops and tests a holistic framework for SME export considering all aspects of export drivers, and inhibitors. This theoretical framework incorporates and tests three potential mediators (i.e., business strategy, export marketing strategy and innovation strategy) as well. This study draws on the contingency framework, resource-based view and market-based view to provide a holistic understanding of the research issue. It is based on primary data collected by survey and three main methods of descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling for quantitative analysis. The initial data analysis confirms and shows the significant effects of various internal and external firms’ determinants on their export performance. The final research finding have significant implications for understanding all key drivers of SME export in Qatar, and it helps policymakers and regulators to improve the current SME ecosystem in Qatar. Finally, the final results of this study can be extended to other emerging markets with similar economic and legal structure.