The Role of Moderators on Product Quality and Export Flows: The Case of Pakistan

Abstract

High-quality products are always in demand for both local and international markets. The demand for such products can be increased by the product sales at a domestic level. It can also be helpful to increase the export flows of an economy and hence improve the trade flows. Other factors have a moderating role in determining the relationship between export product quality and trade flows. The objective of this study is to examine the role of moderating variables, which are used to check the strength of the above relationship. There are three variables: financial constraints, firm heterogeneity, and R&D activities are taken as moderators. For this purpose, the data is taken from annual financial reports of non-financial firms which are listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. Also, some country-level data is taken from the Pakistan Economic Survey. The objective of the study was achieved by using panel techniques Fixed Effect, Random Effect Model for the period of 1999 to 2020. It is found that firm heterogeneity and R&D activities have positive and financial constraints have negative but significant effects on strengthening the relationship between product quality and export flows. Based on our findings, the government should provide R&D funds and financial aid programs for new investors to improve product quality and increase their sales in local and international markets.