Understanding pre-export behaviour of small and medium-sized firms in New Zealand: towards a model of export readiness

Abstract

The thesis examines the pre-export behaviour of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in New Zealand by developing a conceptual framework for export readiness. In this thesis, export readiness is defined as the state of export preparedness, which is a function of firm, managerial and environmental characteristics and evolves through a range of activities that occur prior to the commencement of export activity. We examine different aspects of export readiness and classify export readiness into "physical" readiness (e.g. financial readiness, marketing/operational readiness) and "psychological" readiness (e.g. managerial commitment readiness). Drawing on several literature strands, including exporting, international entrepreneurship, strategic management and networks, we develop a conceptual framework for analysing and evaluating export readiness. The framework incorporates export stimuli, export objectives, export information, export planning, firm strategy, and network relationships. Hypotheses that are associated with the framework are developed and tested using firm-level data from a sample of 96 manufacturing SMEs in New Zealand. Our results indicate that export readiness is a multi-faceted construct. There are different predictors for each of the different aspects of export readiness. In particular, we find that proactive export stimuli play an important role for our understanding of export readiness. Also, our study shows that a planned export entry is positively associated with most types of export readiness. In addition, we find partial support for a positive relationship between export readiness and subsequent export performance. Our study suggests that traditional concepts of the internationalisation process, such as domestic expansion prior to exporting, are not necessarily required for "being ready to export". Furthermore, our findings imply that an understanding of the pre-export behaviour and export preparation process is important as exemplified by the positive relationship between export readiness and export performance.