Export Marketing Performance: A Study of Thailand Firms

Abstract

For significant advances in export marketing theory to be achieved, a more integrated approach needs to be taken to the conceptualization and measurement of export marketing constructs (Cavusgil and Zou 1994). A fundamental part of such an approach is the refinement and validation of measurement scales across different national settings. The validation of measurement scales can play an important part in advancing marketing theory by establishing reliable scales that can be used in more than one country. Therefore, international researchers should be encouraged to use similar measurement instruments and to compare findings across national settings, leading eventually to a more systematic and fruitful development of export marketing theory. The purpose of this article is to identify the key factors that influence export marketing performance. The study reports the process of refining and testing the validity of the export marketing performance scale developed by Cavusgil and Zou (1994). The Cavusgil and Zou (1994) scale was chosen, as it is considered the most comprehensive export marketing performance scale in both content and form in strategy, management, marketing, and exporting (Styles 1998). However, the validity of the scale for use across different countries has yet to be investigated. Foreign markets increasingly have become more viable in the past two decades; therefore, it is important to identify the key factors influencing the export marketing performance of export market ventures. Three distinctive features should be noted from the outset. First, the unit of analysis, as with the Cavusgil and Zou (1994) study, is an individual product-market export venture of the firm, which is defined as the marketing of a specific product in a specific export market. The case where a product is marketed in two export markets or where two products are marketed in the same export market is considered two export ventures. Second, export marketing performance is determined by the accomplishment of strategic as well as economic objectives. Third, data has been collected through a survey being directed to the marketing manager of the firm in the sample. The specific national setting for the examination reported here is Thailand, where interest in marketing performance research among academics is increasing (for example, Julian and Ramaseshan 1999). The population used for the validation is small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), defined as firms with fewer than 500 employees (OECD 1994; Styles 1998). Export research focusing on this group of firms is of interest (1) because the potential growth in exports is perhaps the greatest among this group (Walters and Samiee 1990) and (2) because of the suggestion that SMEs may operate in quite different ways than larger firms (Carson 1990), thus requiring that they be studied separately. Literature Review Though past research has identified the key determinants of export marketing performance, there are at least three issues in previous studies that weaken their findings. The first is the level of analysis. With few exceptions, previous studies have been conducted at the overall firm level. As a result, the determinants of export marketing performance were conceptualized as firm-specific characteristics. An underlying theoretical justification for firm-level studies is the theory of internalization (Beamish and Banks 1987; Buckley and Casson 1985; Rugman 1981), which argues that in imperfect markets, firms should internalize the firm-specific advantages, both tangible and intangible, to extract maximum economic rent. Because firm-specific advantages are derived not only from the development and marketing of a particular product but also from the total learning process of the firm, export performance should be investigated at the firm level. Though these studies have contributed to our knowledge of export behavior, there are notable limitations associated with firm-level investigations of export marketing performance. …