The Quality of Export Marketing Research Information: An Investigation of Key Antecedents

Abstract

The systematic gathering and utilization of information is a key ingredient for a successful export marketing strategy (Ricks, 1993). Most work in the area of export marketing information has focused on information acquisition, i.e. the types and sources of information consulted by exporters (see Leonidou and Katsikeas (1997) for a review). In contrast, the evaluation and use of export information has received only scant attention in the literature ( c.f. Souchon and Diamantopoulos, 1996). Recognizing that the perceived quality of the acquired information determines whether such information will be employed for decision making (John and Martin, 1984; Menon and Varadarajan, 1992), the present study seeks to (a) develop a measure of the (perceived) quality of export marketing research (EMR) information, and (b) provide preliminary empirical insights into the factors impinging upon such quality.