Export Intermediaries Research Articles

The Effect of Website and E-Commerce Adoption on the Relationship between SMEs and Their Export Intermediaries

Whilst website adoption within UK SMEs is widespread, the number offering e-commerce activities is declining or static. This result is surprising given indications that the medium may be valuable to SMEs and to exporters in particular. Among the multitude of factors suggested to affect adoption, the link between export channel relationships and website/e-commerce adoption has mainly been the focus of normative writings or anecdotal evidence. By building on the rich literature on authoritative control (manifest conflict) and relationship marketing paradigm (trust and commitment), as well as in-depth interviews with exporters, the article proposes a conceptualization of the potential effects of website and/or e-commerce adoption on conflict and the mediating effect of trust and commitment. Evidence presented indicates that the Internet has the capability to be both a constructive and destructive influence on channel relationships. The findings presented here both support and challenge normative and anecdotal literature, which could explain the low adoption rate amongst exporting SMEs. Furthermore, our conceptualization demonstrates that a combination of authoritative control and relational paradigm constructs, (manifest conflict, trust and commitment) is useful in understanding channel relationship scenarios.

Using Trading Firms to Export: What Can the French Experience Teach Us?

The article reports on a study relating to export intermediation by trading firms in France. Researchers found that trading firms handled a greater percentage of French exports going to countries within the Latin European cluster than exports bound for countries in the Germanic and Anglo clusters. The percentage of French exports handled by intermediaries was three times as high as when exports were bound for non-French-speaking countries. The results indicated that the higher the commodity content of their products the more likely French companies were to use export intermediaries.

Export Intermediation: An Empirical Test of Peng and Ilinitch

This paper provides empirical evidence from France on the role of export intermediary firms. Using data from 20,000 French firms, this paper tests two of the five transaction cost-based propositions on the role of export intermediaries by Peng and Ilinitch (1998). While the empirical evidence only partially supports their first proposition on distance and familiarity, their second proposition on product complexity is corroborated.

Behind Intermediary Performance in Export Trade: Transactions, Agents, and Resources

Integrating transaction cost, agency, and resource-based theories, this study extends the work of Peng and Ilinitch (1998) by undertaking the first empirical efforts to explore the determinants of export intermediary performance. We suggest that given the transaction cost constraints and principal-agent conflicts, export intermediaries' performance depends on their possession of valuable, unique, and hard-to-imitate resources which help minimize their clients' transaction and agency costs. Survey results from 166 firms largely support our hypotheses.

The Relationship Between Diversification and Performance in Export Intermediary Firms

The study examines the impact of product, functional and geographical diversification on the sales, exports and profitability of export intermediaries (EIs). It is based on a mailed survey of a sample of 135 British EIs. The results indicated that product and unrelated functional diversification are important to an EI's export stability. EIs that tend to carry undifferentiated products also exhibit more stable export sales. Although geographical diversification itself was not found to affect performance, focus on the economically developed countries seems to be critical for an EI's stability and growth of sales and exports.

Factors Affecting Export Intermediaries' Service Offerings: The British Example

This study attempts to determine and explain the service-offering behavior of British export intermediaries (EIs). It was empirically confirmed that EIs offer two categories of services: transaction-creating and physical-fulfillment services. It was postulated that the extent to which an EI offers these types of services is influenced by a set of factors that are internally-, product-, market-, supplier-, and buyer-related. Empirical tests on a sample of 135 British EIs established that an EI's exporting role, number of employees, amount of undifferentiated products carried, number of suppliers, and number of countries served all have a direct impact on an EI's service-offering behavior.

Schumpeterian Dynamics Versus Williamsonian Considerations: A Test of Export Intermediary Performance

Using a sample of export intermediaries connecting domestic producers and foreign buyers, the study tests competing hypotheses on firm performance derived from the Austrian and transaction cost perspectives. Specifically, the Austrian perspective suggests that the more distant the export market and the more complex the product that the intermediary specializes in, the better its performance. Transaction cost theory, on the other hand, offers conflicting predictions. Our results indicate that these two theories are complementary to each other, and a contingency framework is proposed and discussed.

Export Intermediary Firms: A Note on Export Development Research

Building on Leonidou and Katsikeas' (1996) recent review of the export development literature, we identify an important missing link in existing research: the role of export intermediaries as an organizational form connecting domestic manufacturers and foreign buyers. In response, a new research agenda drawing on the transaction cost and resource-based perspectives is advanced. This agenda focuses on why export intermediaries are selected by manufacturers in their channel choice decisions, and why some intermediaries outperform others. The paper closes with discussions of research, practice, and public policy implications.

General Electric Trading Company:

The General Electric Trading Company (GETC) was launched in 1982 as a potential American sogoshosha through its double mission of: (1) exporting both its own and other companies' products, and (2) countertrading. However, an unfavorable international environment and a new corporate strategy under Chairman Jack Welch led to the abandonment of GETC's exporting task and to the downscaling of its countertrade activities. This article analyzes GETC's downward course, which illustrates the difficulties of: (1) marrying a trading company to a decentralized multinational industrial corporation, and (2) developing the equivalent of a Japanese sogoshosha in the U.S. environment. It draws policy and managerial implications for the development of U.S. export intermediaries who are needed to expand U.S. exports.

Contractual Arrangement and Marketing Practices in the Indirect Export Channel

The association between contractual arrangement and the marketing practices of export intermediaries and domestic supplies is examined. Based on data collected from a national sample of export management companies, the effect of structuring the export arrangement as a contractual, administrative, or conventional channel is analyzed. Prior research suggests that contractual form establishes the framework within which all the economic and sociopolitical interactions between the supplier and export middleman take place. Hypothesized relationship between export practices and channel structure are empirically tested, and the central role of structure in the operation of export channels is largely confirmed.