An interesting debate is currently taking place among scholars and
decision makers about the evaluation of public support targeted to internationalization
activities. In order to understand their efficiency,
we need first to know more about the determinants of their use.
We developed an econometric model based on the Heckmam method,
a two-step statistical approach that corrects for selection bias resulting
from non-randomly selected sample of firms' awarenesses. The model
is tested on a recent survey that includes 441 firms that used at least
one of the 11 internationalization support measures launched in Portugal
since 1994.
The empirical results overall show that firm competencies and the requirements
of internationalization positively affect the awareness of
public support. Analysing the effects on use, we found evidence that firm competencies are negatively related with use, unlike the the requirements
of internationalization, which are positively related with
the use of public support
