An Assessment of the Exporting Literature: Using Theory and Data to Identify Future Research Directions

Abstract

Exporting research is an established facet of the field of international marketing. That stated, the radical increase in recent export activity necessitates a sustained research effort devoted to the topic. In this article, the authors provide a qualitative review of the core theoretical exporting areas and evaluate the exporting domain quantitatively over six decades (1958–2016). For the quantitative analysis, they use multidimensional scaling and apply established bibliometric principles to offer an understanding of the field and to provide suggestions for future exporting research. For the evaluations, the authors used data from 830 articles with 52,191 citations from 35 journals. Using cocitation analysis as the basis to evaluate the data, they propose a series of intellectual structure implications on exporting that relate to internationalization process stages, dynamic capabilities, knowledge scarcity, social networks, export marketing strategy, absorptive capacity and learning, and nonlinear performance relationships involving marketing channel relationships.

Do Export Learning Processes Affect Sales Growth in Exporting Activities?

“…Since processes of export learning are based on input derived from both external (e.g., market research) and internal (e.g., experiential) sources of information (see Table 1), future studies should ideally examine the interplay among external and internal drivers of export learning process. The learning-by-exporting literature would benefit from such an attempt to synthesize across related knowledge and learning concepts (Chabowski et al 2018).…”

“…Marketing scholars have devoted sustained attention to understanding the export performance construct and its drivers (Chabowski et al 2018; Magnusson et al 2013). Still, extant research has overlooked key facets of organizational learning as a driver of export performance.…”

How Does Managerial Experience Predict the Internationalization Type of a Young Firm?

“…Studies on early internationalization started emerging in the late 1980s and, especially, in the beginning of the 1990s. Export and internationalization literature has focused on several topics: for instance, on differences between various exporters' internationalization processes and patterns, export barriers and obstacles to exporting, success factors, export(ers)' survival, and governmental export assistance (for an overview, see, e.g., [1]- [6]).…”

Three Essays on Export Promotion Services and Systems: Overcoming Export Barriers

“…In fact, a recent literature review on exporting (Chabowski et al, 2018), although not considering export promotion as a separate theme in the extant literature, recommends scholars to explore the theme of interorganizational relationships, which "could also be applied in public policy" (p.136). The review also points out that only recently these themes have started to be researched.…”

“…Also, international intermediaries may play a relevant role in connecting firms in a cluster, particularly SMEs, to global value chains (Ellis, 2003). In fact, the most recent literature of export promotion stresses the importance of export promotion programs conceived to promote networking Chabowski et al, 2018). This type of export support is extremely relevant in the case of clusters intending to expand overseas, since it helps the firms within the clusters to overcome informational barriers.…”