Impact of country-level factors on export competitiveness of agriculture industry from emerging markets

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the impact of country-level factors and aim to find out how the factors affect the export competitiveness of agricultural industries from emerging markets. Agricultural industries have been traditionally one of the important contributors to the increased exports from emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach – The revealed comparative advantage (RCA) approach is used to define the export competitiveness of agricultural industries in emerging markets. Regression and factor analysis are used to find out the relationship between export competitiveness and important country-level factors, such as wage cost, irrigated land area, food price index, export of agriculture products, domestic consumption demand and exchange rate, against US dollars of different countries from emerging markets. Findings – Export of agriculture products, irrigated land area and exchange rate against US dollars were found to have positive relationship with export competitiveness of agriculture industry. On the other hand, labor cost and domestic consumption demand were found to have a negative relationship with the export competitiveness. Practical implications – In transformation of emerging economies, a higher level of export, larger area of irrigated land and stable exchange rate of US dollars will benefit the agriculture export of emerging markets. The rising wage cost and domestic consumption need can restrain the export competitiveness of emerging markets. Originality/value – The research offers important hints for emerging markets to find their own ways to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in export market by controlling the country-level factors. Also, it revealed the future problems that can appear in the transformation, with practical suggestions following. This research will be helpful to both policy-makers and global managers.