Investigating African Firms’ Export Performance: The Role of Marketing Adaptation and Institutional Conditions

Abstract

The literature on internationalization has focused largely on the operations of multinational enterprises in Africa, while evidence of the international entrepreneurial activities of African firms remains understudied. The way firm resources interact with environmental conditions in terms of marketing adaptation and export performance remains unclear. Drawing on the resource-based view and institutional-based perspective, this study uses survey-based data from 308 firms in Nigeria and Ghana to assess the relationships between these constructs. The findings reveal that networking capability and financial resource availability positively influence marketing adaptation, which mediates the relationship between firm resources and export performance. This indicates that these effects are contingent upon institutional conditions, with significant implications for the internationalization of African companies.