International corporate entrepreneurship of Chinese exporters : an empirical study

Market orientation, corporate entrepreneurship and learning orientation are relevant and important organizational capabilities determining performance particularly for exporters who face an increasingly complex environment. A survey was undertaken in China to investigate their inter-relationships as well as their impact on performance. Results show that learning orientation is the major cultural precursor instrumental to market orientation and entrepreneurship development. It was also found that corporate entrepreneurship is a perfect mediator between learning- and market orientation-performance relationships. Chinese exporters are advised to cultivate themselves in developing a learning culture which can help them become more market-oriented and entrepreneurial, and thus outperform in foreign countries

Market learning as a determinant of export marketing competence : a comparison of Australian born global and non-born global firms

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The influence of experience and deliberate learning on SME export performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the relative importance of deliberate learning, learning from experience and relevant learning co-variates in pursuing market learning, and to assess the impact of market learning on export performance in smaller firms. Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical model was initially developed and subsequently tested using survey data. The standard two step approach of first testing the measurement model and then estimating the structural model was adopted. Findings – The results provide concrete evidence that among SMEs, deliberate learning has a greater impact on export market learning as compared to experience accumulation, and that market learning has a significant effect on export performance. The results also show that absorptive capacity and commitment to learning are significant co-variates of market learning. Originality/value – This paper focuses on the role of deliberate learning vis-a-vis learning by experience in achieving foreign market learning and export performance in smaller firms. It addresses a major limitation of organisational learning studies which tend to focus mainly on experiential learning and organisational learning in large organisations

Transforming learning into export performance by Chinese firms

Organisational learning plays a vital role in enhancing firm performance, particularly for companies operating in foreign markets. Knowledge gained from various markets needs to be integrated for it to have a significant impact on performance. This study seeks to demonstrate how organisational learning can transform knowledge into performance through an organization-wide commitment to learning, a knowledge integration system and an organisational capability to learn. A survey undertaken in South China would show that there is a sequential chain of effects among these constructs

Export intensity and diversity among small and medium sized exporters in China

While the positive effect of internationalization on performance is evident among small- and medium-sized enterprises, this study seeks to gauge the interactive effect of export intensity and diversity on performance. We also tested the moderating role of export agent on the above relationships. A survey was conducted in China among small and medium-sized exporters. Results show that intensity and diversity interact negatively in affecting performance in such a way that high intensity should be coupled with low diversity or vice versa to ensure export success. We also found that use of export agent can enhance the intensity-performance relationship only when export intensity is high

How Chinese exporters acquire learning capability : empirical evidence from an emerging economy

There has been very little research into the relationship between a firm’s export performance and its effectiveness as a learning organization. In this chapter, the authors define export market learning as an important and distinctive capability, which enables firms to enhance their overall export performance by guiding them to formulate product adaptation strategies that accurately address the unique demands and constraints of particular host environments. As a firm internationalizes by exporting to other markets, cultivating a learning orientation as an organizational-level value, along with building systematic organizational learning routines and mechanisms can help to cultivate the firm’s export market learning capability. The authors undertook a survey of China-based exporting firms. The research found that market learning significantly mediated both the relationship between internationalization and export performance and the relationship between mechanisms for market learning and export performance. These findings have two main implications. First, internationalization induces the enhancement of export performance through the cultivation of market learning capability. Second, a set of systematic routines for market learning can help to ensure that a salient body of market knowledge is acquired and retained, which can then be used to guide product adaptation and positioning decisions that are appropriate for particular export markets, thereby constituting an enduring competence

The influence of experience and deliberate learning on SME export performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the relative importance of deliberate learning, learning from experience and relevant learning co-variates in pursuing market learning, and to assess the impact of market learning on export performance in smaller firms. Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical model was initially developed and subsequently tested using survey data. The standard two step approach of first testing the measurement model and then estimating the structural model was adopted. Findings – The results provide concrete evidence that among SMEs, deliberate learning has a greater impact on export market learning as compared to experience accumulation, and that market learning has a significant effect on export performance. The results also show that absorptive capacity and commitment to learning are significant co-variates of market learning. Originality/value – This paper focuses on the role of deliberate learning vis-a-vis learning by experience in achieving foreign market learning and export performance in smaller firms. It addresses a major limitation of organisational learning studies which tend to focus mainly on experiential learning and organisational learning in large organisations

Linking commitment to learning, knowledge integration and market learning to export performance

When firms expand their operations into foreign countries, the environment becomes more diverse and complex mandating that acquired knowledge be properly managed. A process by which managers inventory, synthesise and use the knowledge they have gained which is referred to as knowledge integration needs to be adopted. This study examines the role of knowledge integration and finds that while it affects export pe1•formance through market learning, it is a firm's commitment to learning that drives knowledge integration. Survey data from Australia and China provide the empirical evidence to support these relationships

Intensity and diversity of internationalization among small and medium-sized exporters in China

Purpose – This study aims to gauge the interactive effect of export intensity and diversity on export performance among exporters in an emerging economy and explore the moderating effect of export intermediaries on the internationalization– export performance relationship. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was undertaken among a convenience sample of small and medium exporters located in Guangdong and Fujian Provinces in South China. Findings – The results show that intensity and diversity interact negatively with export performance, whereas the use of export agents registered a positive effect. Exporters pursuing a strategy of high export intensity will achieve better performance provided that these exports are concentrated in a few countries. Using export agents can help in enhancing the intensity–performance relationship but not that for diversity–performance. Practical implications – Chinese exporters are advised not to blindly pursue international expansion without regard to their own resources and capabilities. They should try to strike a balance between intensity and diversity and employ external agents when needed. Originality/value – This research seeks to address the void in the literature on how export intensity and diversity should be balanced to create a positive effect on the performance of exporting ventures in an emerging economy, which is under-addressed in the literature. It is also found that employment of export intermediaries is not always good for export performance

The relative impact of market orientation and entrepreneurship on export performance : do we really know enough?

The impact of international corporate entrepreneurship and market orientation on firm performance is well acknowledged in the literature, but their relative influence on the performance of exporting firms remains inconclusive. This study seeks to help clarify the influence of these organizational resources by introducing a third complementary resource, namely commitment to learning. The results, based on data obtained from a survey of exporters in China, show that commitment to learning mediates the relationship between market orientation and entrepreneurship. It was also found that market orientation could be a double-edged sword for exporters in that it can enhance export satisfaction through entrepreneurship, but it can also have negative impact on profit