Export Marketing Orientation in Small Firms

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to test empirically the hypothesis that managers of small firms are less export-oriented than those of larger firms. Testing was done by using data gathered by the author through personal interviews and a structured questionnaire from a sample of Canadian manufacturing firms which comprised exporters and non-exporters of various size. The results showed substantial similarity between small and large firms in terms of both managerial export-orientation and actual export involvement (exports as a ratio of total sales) of sample firms. Some proable reasons explaining this finding are given in the concluding section.