The impact of African manager's values on exporting: influential managerial characteristics and export performance

Abstract

Despite the substantial published research that has been reported to identify the determinants of export performance, little research has investigated the possible impact of managers' individual values on the export performance of the firm (Sousa et al., 2010). The extant literature has generally explored the effect of managerial characteristics on organisational outcomes in a variety of settings. This research study conceptualises how the unique set of values of top managers within the African context influences their choices and subsequent firm outcomes. The purpose is to posit into the export performance literature by exploring how variation in CEO values, demographic characteristics, and psychic distance influence firm export performance. Since strategic choices often involves a redistribution of the resources of whatever nature to those in need, top managers originating from the upper social classes ever being part of this group naturally conserve resources for their own group. It is arguable that the upper-class offspring will be reluctant as well to proactively engage in firm behaviour implying a shift of resources to their relative disadvantage (Kemayou, 2011). Specifically, the intended theoretical contribution is clarification of the mechanism which explains managerial choice influencing export performance for the firm.