Learning by exporting: A system-based review and research agenda

Over the past four decades, flourishing empirical research has attempted to establish the mechanisms and conditions underpinning improvements in exporters’ innovation and productivity via the learning-by-exporting (LBE) effect, and the domain has gained legitimacy and empirical credibility. However, the literature's findings are largely fragmented and require systematic review and analysis to draw definitive conclusions on the factors that influence the subsequent realization of learning from exporting. To fill this void, we critically examine the extant LBE research for the period 1984–2021. We systematically review 167 articles to develop a system-based taxonomy and conceptual model of LBE, which comprises five major components: system outputs (productivity and innovation), inputs (e.g., institutional factors and resources), firm-level capabilities (e.g., absorptive capacity and innovation persistence), managerial characteristics (e.g., entrepreneurship skills) and internationalization strategies. In doing so, we uncover paradoxical tensions within the system brought about by the conflicting roles of some components of the LBE system, such as firm-, industry- and country-level technological capabilities. Our review also reveals research gaps that open relevant opportunities for further research and conclusions that hold novel implications for managers and policymakers.     

Firm-level indicators of instrumental and political CSR processes – A multiple case study

Recent studies have been increasingly distinguishing between instrumental and political approaches to corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, few studies have explored the firm-level processes generating these types of CSR engagements. Using Basu and Palazzo’s (2008) proposition to model CSR as a process of sensemaking, we suggest that multinational enterprises use different processes in developing capabilities around instrumental and political CSR. Our qualitative multiple case–study analysis is based on data from 42 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 27 senior managers from British American Tobacco, Nestlé, and Hewlett Packard. Our findings from the three cases indicate that instrumental and political CSR are characterised by different sensemaking processes. We also find evidence for overlapping of processes between instrumental and political CSR.     

Winning the Export War: British, Japanese and West German Exporters' Strategy Compared

A comparison of pricing policies, price and volume volatility, and investment in distribution, sales and marketing systems across 462 product categories identifies important differences in the strategies of British, Japanese and West German exporters towards the US market. The impact of these strategic choices on the evolution of market share is tested. The results suggest that many British manufacturers' export strategy has been dominated by UK supply and demand considerations. A large proportion of British exports are therefore confined to niches where sensitivity to price fluctuations and ‘stop-start’ supply is low and local distribution support is less important. Products where ‘pull marketing’ dominates are the key exception. Japanese exporters have invested heavily in US distribution and channel support, combined with a policy of stable US prices, aiding long term penetration. West German exporters have built share on technological advantage and direct sales support supplied from Germany to a limited number of customers.     

Barriers to export management: an organizational and internationalization analysis

The article focuses on barriers encountered by developing country-based manufacturing firms during ongoing export business operations. Using a sample of 100 Cyprus-based exporters, the study revealed that problems associated with export competitiveness had the greatest obstructing effect. Using principal component analysis, export barriers were classified into six conceptually meaningful categories. Overall, organizational parameters had a serious discriminating influence on the emerging barrier factors, especially those controllable by the firm, with company size, experience and backup networking exerting the most impact. Internationalization variables were generally less influential, with novice, intermittent, and passive exporters being more vulnerable to problems. A number of policy-making implications are derived from the study findings.     

Exploitation Strategy and Performance of Contract Manufacturing Exporters: The Mediating Roles of Exploration Strategy and Marketing Capability

Contract manufacturing exporters (CMEs) receive a meagre share of global value chain returns, primarily because of the mundane and exploitative nature of the activities they perform in their dependency relationships with lead firms. We posit that CMEs can enhance their performance by capitalizing on their exploitation strategy. Exploitation strategy triggers exploration strategy which requires building marketing capabilities for enhanced performance. Based on data from 154 Vietnamese CMEs, we find significant indirect only mediation effects of: 1) exploration strategy between exploitation strategy and export performance; and 2) marketing capability between exploration strategy and export performance. Further, we find significant indirect only serial mediation of exploration strategy and marketing capability between exploitation strategy and export performance. The findings are also supported and contextualized based on illustrative quotes from face to face semi-structured interviews with senior managers of 10 Vietnamese CMEs. The findings suggest that CMEs' that consciously capitalize on the exploitation strategy by seeking exploration opportunities while building their marketing capability exhibit enhanced performance.     

Psychometric analysis of the UK Health and Safety Executive's Management Standards work-related stress Indicator Tool

Abstract

Numerous tools have been developed that attempt to measure work-related stress and working conditions, but few practical instruments in the literature have been found to have a reliable psychometric factor structure. In the UK, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Management Standards (MS) Indicator Tool is increasingly used by organizations to monitor working conditions that can lead to stress. In Health and Safety Executive (2004), a factor analysis was conducted demonstrating the reliability of the scales. However, the authors acknowledged that direct reassessment of the same factor structure was impossible as the questionnaire was split into two separate modules for data collection. Furthermore, the tool is designed to enable comparisons between as well as within organizations to take place, yet reliability has only previously been tested at the individual level. The current study is the first to examine the factor structure of the HSE MS Indicator Tool using organizational-level data. Data collected from 39 UK organizations (N=26,382) was used to perform a first-order Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on the original 35-item seven-factor measurement scale. The results showed an acceptable fit to the data for the instrument. A second-order CFA was also performed to test if the Indicator Tool contains a higher order uni-dimensional measure of work-related stress. These findings also revealed an acceptable fit to the data, suggesting that it may be possible to derive a single measure of work-related stress. Normative data comprising tables of percentiles from the organizational data are provided to enable employers to compare their organizational averages against national benchmarks.     

Private Equity and Bank Capital Requirements: Evidence from European Firms

Using firm-level data from 16 euro-area countries over 2008–2014, we investigate how the performance of bank-affiliated private equity-backed companies evolves after the European Banking Authority increased capital requirements for their parent banks. We find that portfolio companies connected to exposed banks reduce their level of investment and experience weaker asset growth, employment growth and profitability following the capital exercise. We further show that the effect is stronger for companies likely to face financial constraints. Finally, the findings indicate that the negative effect of the capital exercise is muted when the private equity sponsor is more experienced.     

Psychosocial risk assessment: Measurement invariance of the UK Health and Safety Executive's Management Standards Indicator Tool across public and private sector organizations

Abstract

This study provides evidence to support the validity of the UK Health and Safety Executive Management Standards Indicator Tool, which is widely used in the UK by organizations to test for stress-related working conditions. A large pooled data set was collected from 137 UK organizations (N=67,347) to test the factor structure of both the original 35-item seven-factor instrument and a new shorter 25-item version. The results showed that the tool was a good fit to the data for both versions. Further analysis examined the factor structure of the Indicator Tool by splitting the data set into both public and private sector organizations. Tests for measurement invariance showed that both versions of the Indicator Tool provided a good fit to the data. The final sequence of analysis showed that the measurement structure of both the 25-item and 35-item scales was also invariant across small-, medium- and large-sized organizations. The current study provides percentile tables for both the public and private sectors so that organizations can compare their scores against UK national benchmarks. Overall, this study validates both the full and the short versions of a valuable and reliable diagnostic instrument for use in a variety of organizations.     

Internationalization and Indigenous Technological Efforts of Emerging Economy Firms: The Effect of Multiple Knowledge Sources

Getting engaged in competitive international markets motivates exporting firms to enhance their technological competitiveness and invest in research and development (R&D). While in-house R&D investment is important for getting advanced technologies, the technologies needed by exporters located in emerging economies (EEs) typically readily exist overseas. Drawing on organizational learning literature, we argue that the R&D intensity stimulated by exporting may be reduced when 1) EE exporters are better prepared and motivated to absorb foreign knowledge, 2) foreign sources of knowledge are more available, and/or 3) local technology supply is poor. An analysis on 5592 automobile parts and component manufacturers in China during 2005–2007 supports these arguments. To compete in markets abroad, Chinese firms' R&D intensity increases with export intensity when their export intensity is low. As the export intensity exceeds a certain threshold, their R&D intensity starts to decrease as intensive exporters are better prepared and motivated to acquire knowledge from foreign sources. When substitutive foreign knowledge sources such as foreign parents and FDI spillovers in the local industry is available, firms' R&D intensity stimulated by exporting can be further reduced. Better local technology supply can increase the R&D intensity stimulated by exporting.     

The importance of practical export skills: some evidence from Canadian agribusiness

This paper compares the practical export skills needed by Canadian Agribusiness for sales to the U.S. with those for Overseas markets. Seventy skills in global entrepreneurship, international marketing, international finance, and international trade logistics were ranked and used to gauge the influence of export market on practical international trade skills. The findings show that practical export skill requirements vary substantially by firm and export market. Generally, basic management, marketing, finance, and shipping skills are most important to successful agri-product exporting. Advanced skills in strategic management, export marketing, and export finance are not important to most exporters. Instead, most Canadian agribusiness exporters consider the ability to use international trade specialists to be a key export skill.     

E-business services and business performance: a study of the telecommunications manufacturing industry

The development of information and communication technologies has significantly changed the business interactions as well as created new approaches for improving business performances. While the benefits from this development have been well documented in the literature, it also poses a significant challenge for companies in tracking or further improving e-business services. This article contributes to this body of knowledge by investigating the impact of e-business service dimensions on business performance in the telecommunications manufacturing industry. Based on 121 usable responses from a questionnaire survey of the UK telecommunication manufacturers, structural equation modelling is employed to identify the main e-business service dimensions which affect business performance significantly. The data analysis reveals that two e-business service dimensions significantly influence suppliers’ performance from the buyer's perspective. It also indicates the significant relationships between suppliers’ performance, buyer-perceived buyer–supplier relationship maintenance and the buyer's competitive advantage. The findings in this research not only help the supplier to understand which practices significantly improve its overall performance (as perceived by the buyer), but also assist the buyer in its supplier development efforts to improve its own business performance.     

A preliminary insight into the role and importance of management skills in the prevention of occupational derailment: An exploratory analysis of UK and Spanish pharmacists

The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence and importance of management skills in the pharmacy profession and pharmacists’ ability to respond to current and future challenges in healthcare provision. As service professionals, pharmacists are engaged based on their expertise and skills, and are noted for their contribution to the knowledge-based economy and control over the application of their knowledge (Abbott, 1991). The same premise would apply to other professionals e.g. healthcare (nurses, doctors and psychologists); legal (lawyers, solicitors and barristers); consultancy; accountancy; banking and architecture (von Nordenflycht, 2010). An exploratory analysis of UK and Spanish pharmacists’ roles and their adoption of management skills was thus undertaken. Both healthcare systems are very similar and likewise the clinical training and role of pharmacists, professional standards and regulations are similar but there are subtle differences. Data were collected using semi-structured online surveys; two thirds of the data were collected from a UK audience and the final third from Spanish pharmacists. The data collection was planned and iterative in the first two stages (stage one influencing stage two) (UK) and the final stage (Spain) offered an opportunistic comparator study. The results demonstrated that there was overwhelming support for management skills to be part of undergraduate studies. The outputs of this study identify the most important management skills pharmacists need to perform effectively. Consideration was also given to the impact of inability to perform in their role, and hence the possibility of occupational derailment (leaving their role or being demoted). These findings offer important learning to support workforce development in all professional services.     

Top Management Team Internationalization and Firm-level Internationalization: The Moderating Effects of Home-region Institutional Diversity and Firm Global Focus

The factors that determine firms' levels of internationalization remain a focal area of international business research. Within this research stream, studies building on the upper echelons theory have investigated the influence of the demographic characteristics of the top management team (TMT) on firms' international expansion. However, the literature to date has overlooked the TMT's overall degree of internationalization as a key driver of firm-level internationalization. In our paper, we argue that by having self-selected into careers abroad, foreign TMT members by definition have a higher cognitive tolerance of foreignness than domestic TMT members do. We theorize that foreign TMT members' higher cognitive tolerance for foreignness enhances the overall TMT's level of international attention and international trust, thereby facilitating strategic decisions that favor firm-level internationalization. Additionally, we propose two key contingencies that attenuate this relationship: the institutional diversity of the firm's home region and the firm's global focus. Analysis of Fortune Global 500 firms supports the hypothesized relationship between TMT internationalization and firm-level internationalization, as well as the two moderation effects.     

Is data-driven decision-making driven only by data? When cognition meets data

This paper aims in the context of data-driven decision making (DDDM) at investigating how biases related to the intuitive and rational types of human reasoning interact and how the trust in data changes applying the parallel-competitive theory. Using ethnographic research based on participatory observations, we explore the case of a traditional transportation firm in the northern UK and its earliest use of data to inform strategic decisions. We found that biases are grouped into what we called cognition trap, data trap, and trap recognition zones. We further observed three facets of trust in data as decision makers were falling into the three trap zones. These findings contribute to the parallel-competitive theory by unveiling the intriguing synergy of the intuitive and rational types of reasoning in DDDM and providing fine-grained insights related to biases and trust changes. The study also enlarges our understanding of the inception and nature of cognitive and data biases in the DDDM context. Managerial implications are also highlighted and further discussed.     

A Study of the Financial Reporting Dichotomy of Managers' Perceived Usefulness of the Value Added Statement

The value added statements' (VAS) literature has been overwhelmingly normative and generally strongly suggested companies should produce a VAS, as did the Nigerian Accounting Standards Board in its Statement of Accounting Standards (NASB, 1984). This study investigated whether the perceived usefulness of the Nigerian VAS conformed to what the managers, as preparers, had envisioned the VAS to accomplish. Using methods pioneered in the empirical literature about the effects of information provision on managers, senior managers in two companies were interviewed about their past, current, and future views concerning the VAS. One company produced a VAS while the other did not produce one even when the Nigerian government made it mandatory. Empirical research about VAS is rare, especially the reasons for nonproduction of a VAS. The collection of interview data at the individual manager level enabled the findings to be compared with various aspects of the VAS literature, including emerging economies, finance studies in the United States, and normative literature in South Africa and UK studies. The non‐VAS company respondents strongly considered the government to be the main user, compared with the employees as main users in UK studies. Our findings had some strong support for shareholders as did the United Kingdom. The majority of the VAS‐producing respondents noted that a VAS might not be useful to employees, but could be used to measure productivity, demonstrating the function of VAS as a complementary performance indicator. The non‐VAS company respondents did not know if a VAS measured productivity, as it was merely a rearrangement of the Income Statement and thus similar to UK views. The paper also provides suggestions for further research with both VAS and other financial representatives.     

Wage Premium in the Industrial Sector of the Spanish Economy: Empirical Evidence

Abstract. This paper presents evidence that firm-level productivity increases when the relative wage rises, or the level of unemployment rises. Both facts are consistent with the efficiency wage model. Moreover, there is support for the idea that an increase in the sector's wage with respect to the previous year also increases productivity. We obtain the empirical evidence through a double-hurdle model. We use this estimation technique because it can be established that the differences in productivity between sectors could be explained by differences in effort. It means that some of the industrial sectors of the Spanish economy may pay wage premia while others do not. We also test this implication through panel data.     

Performance Appraisal,Performance Management,and Firm-Level Performance: A Review,a Proposed Model,and New Directions for Future Research

Abstract

There has been a long history in management and industrial/organizational psychology of studying methods to improve performance at work. These efforts have traditionally been concerned with individual-level performance (with some attention paid to team performance as well); even when research began to more broadly consider the topic of performance management instead of just performance appraisal. However, the often unstated assumption was that, if an organization could effectively improve the performance of individual employees, this would accrue to improvements in firm-level performance as well. A review of the literature suggested that this link had never really been established in a direct way. Instead, we found considerable support for relating “bundles” of human resource (HR) practices to firm-level performance, and several models for how these practices could create the transformation from individual-level to firm-level performance. We drew upon several of these models, from somewhat diverse literatures, to propose a model whereby bundles of HR practices, when aligned with the strategic goals of the organization, can be used to create a climate for performance that could transform generic knowledges, skills, and abilities (KSAs) into specific KSAs needed to improve firm-level performance.     

Density-dependent strategic action: Outcomes of structural market commitment in the global integrated circuit industry

This study develops theory regarding organizational survival and technology management in global, technology-intensive industries. Findings indicate that ecological effects on survival localize to the level of separate international markets as an industry becomes global. How firms structurally participate in these markets moderate these ecological forces. Strategic choices about technology management, such as centralized versus decentralized manufacturing and R&D operations, help firms “crack” densely packed markets. The developed theory is tested with firm-level data on the structure and international presence of all organizations in the worldwide population of integrated circuit manufacturers, from 1961 to 1994.     

ON CONSUMER- VERSUS FIRM-LEVEL ANALYSIS OF ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS: IMPLICATIONS FOR MODEL BUILDING*

Issues relating to the construction of marketing models are discussed. These include determining the level of aggregation of model construction, specifying the structure of the model, and the aggregation level of data to be employed in estimating model parameters. These issues are addressed through specifying and estimating both consumer-level and firm-level models and comparing the results. An important conclusion is that inferences about consumer behavior should not be drawn from firm-level models since aggregation bias may exist.     

Explicit versus Implicit Profit Sharing and the Determination of Wages:

ABSTRACT: This paper considers the claim that explicit profit sharing reduces the marginal cost of labour This is contrasted with the view that implicit profit sharing occurs through wage bargaining Using a microeconomic data set from the UK we find no evidence that the introduction of profit sharing reduces base wages and hence the marginal cost of labour However firm profitability is found to have a positive effect on wages which supports the hypothesis of implicit profit sharing through wage bargaining These findings suggest that it is hard to justify the favourable tax treatment of profit related pay found in the UK