A contingency-based approach to understanding export performance

Abstract

To date, most export performance studies have focused on providing business practitioners with set 'prescriptions' for export success. However, this approach has resulted in overwhelmingly inconsistent findings, so there is a need for alternative approaches. One alternative is through contingency theory, which posits that each firm's export performance is dependent on the context in which the firm operates. This study therefore uses contingency theory to establish if there is a relationship between export performance and the level of 'fit' between a firm's strategic orientation and its context. This study focused on exporting firms in the apparel industry in New Zealand. Firms were categorised as to whether they were entrepreneurial or conservative in their strategic orientation. The results showed that entrepreneurial firms could operate successfully in hostile or benign external environments, by using either organic or mechanistic export channel structures. But when entrepreneurial and conservative firms have a strategic orientation and channel structure that matches their external environment then there are no real performance advantages for entrepreneurial firms.