This study utilizes multiple-informant and time-lagged primary data from 162 industrial exporting firms in Sub- Saharan Africa to contribute to an understanding of when export marketing capabilities can be deployed to drive export performance. The study finds that market responsiveness capability drives export performance when it is deployed together with a product innovation capability. The joint effect of both capabilities on export performance is weakened at high levels of dysfunctional competition in export market environment. The findings suggest that a stronger capability to respond to export market needs and a greater competence in introducing new products in export markets are not always beneficial in Sub-Saharan African markets as the resulting export performance outcome is dependent upon degrees of dysfunctional competition

Despite extensive research on the effect of organisational learning processes on firm performance, how and when a propensity to learn influences the export performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remains unclear. Using multiple-informant and time-lagged primary data from 242 SMEs in a sub-Saharan African market, this study examines the roles of marketing programme planning and host country psychic distance in linking export learning orientation to export performance. Findings from the study show that increases in both export learning orientation and marketing programme planning are associated with increases in export performance. In addition, the study finds that while increases in psychic distance weaken the effect of export learning orientation on export performance, it strengthens the effect of marketing programme planning on export performance. These findings draw attention to the idea that cognitive distance between home and host country markets may play a paradoxical role in explaining when organisational learning activities may help or hurt exporting SMEs.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how export learning capability and export environmental turbulence serve as mechanisms and boundary conditions to link export market-oriented culture to export performance. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative approach was undertaken to analyse longitudinal data of 249 small- and medium-sized exporting firms in Nigeria, a Sub-Saharan African economy. Findings Four major findings emerged from the study. First, export market-oriented culture positively influences export performance. Second, possessing an export market-oriented culture results in the development of high export learning capabilities. Third, export learning capability mediates the relationship between export market-oriented culture and export performance. Fourth, increases in export environment turbulence weaken the positive effect of export learning capability on export performance. Research limitations/implications This study does not investigate moderating effects which might affect the relationship between export market-oriented culture and export learning capability as this was beyond the scope of this study. Originality/value This study looks at developing economy environment as a unique context to examine the direct, mediating, and moderating effects of export market-oriented culture on export performance.

The understanding of experiential learning through export learning process (XLP), and its outcomes, is limited in the international marketing literature. Using multisource, time-lagged data of exporting firms in the United Kingdom and China, this study finds that XLP is positively associated with marketing strategy adaptation for both U.K. and Chinese exporters. Results suggest contrasting moderating effects of experiential knowledge resources (i.e., psychic dispersion, multinationality, and duration) and strategy adaptation on the relationship between XLP and export sales growth in the two samples. In the U.K. sample, the authors observe a positive moderation effect of psychic dispersion and negative moderation effects of multinationality and duration. For the China sample, they find the exact opposite pattern of moderation effects for the experiential knowledge resources. Marketing strategy adaptation plays a negative moderation role in the China sample but has no such effect in the U.K. sample. The study has implications for theory development on, and the productive management of, processes of learning export management.

While extant research has examined the separate influences of dynamic capabilities and institutions on international performance, their interactive role has received limited attention. Therefore, we examine the role of host-country institutional conditions in the relationships between emerging-market firms' (EMFs) innovation-related dynamic capabilities and their international performance. We use multi-source secondary data and primary data from multiple informants from 254 Turkish international firms to test our framework. The study finds that the linkages between three innovation-related dynamic capabilities (innovativeness, supply-chain agility, and adaptability) and international performance are positively and negatively moderated by institutional development and institutional distance, but that their influences are opposite. These influences demonstrate that host-country institutional conditions shape the link between dynamic capabilities and EMFs' international performance in a multifaceted and paradoxical fashion.