The Effect of Intangible Resources and Competitive Strategies on the Export Performance of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

Abstract

This paper provides an explanation for export process and perceived export performance of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) from Resource-Based View (RBV) which is an important, emerging theory of firm heterogeneity. Following the philosophy of RBV, the author has developed a research model explaining how SMEs improve their Perceived Export Performance (PER) via the integrated application of firms’ Intangible Resources (IR) and Competitive Export Strategies (CES) where both IR and CES are assumed to be most effective means of improving PER. To explore their effects on PER, a mail survey was conducted with 1415 companies from Metal, Textile, Chemical and Furniture industry from Turkey. And 271 responses have been received for further analysis. Regression and Correlation analysis were used to test the hypotheses and to reach the final relationship equation. The results indicated that there is a positive relationship between all IR, CES and PER. We found that combination of IR and CES make more contribution than individual IR and CES on PER. Also our results showed that combination of competitive export strategies makes more contribution than individual strategies on export performance. Additionally, it is found that the effect of IR makes more contribution than CES on PER. In the final model equation the biggest contributions on PER comes from “Export Committed Experience” and “Export Customer Orientation” variables. And the contribution of “Quality Focus” comes out to be nagative in the final equation. This paper has important contributions to the literature as it brings an additional step for the theory development on the export process of SMEs. Additionally it is very helpful for the SMEs which are looking for better export results; they should pay particular attention on developing these intangible resources to reach desired export performance. Also, the results will provide useful hints for government export offices, which are encouraging their SMEs to involve in international business.