EXPORT INTENTION, BELIEFS, AND BEHAVIORS IN SMALLER INDUSTRIAL FIRMS

This article reports results from a portion of a longitudinal study of exporting firms where the relationships among managers' beliefs about exporting, their export intentions, subsequent exporting behavior, and further future exporting intentions are examined. A set of small and medium-sized New England firms, primarily industrial product manufacturers, were quired in 1988 and again in late 1991. Respondents to the initial study included 78% of the 206 firms in the population, whereas 102 of 182 firms responded to the follow-up study, yielding a response rate of 56%. Of these, 77 firms had participated in the initial study, and it is these firms which provide the longitudinal data examined here. In general, the results indicate a relationship between export intentions and managers' beliefs about the value of exporting to their own firms, between export intentions and current performance, between export intentions and subsequent export intentions, between subsequent export intentions and performance in the previous period, and between export intentions and firm size. However, no relationships could be shown between export intention and actual subsequent behavior or between export intention and subsequent export performance. Overall, data support the thesis that learning affects results, whereas results, in turn, spur further learning.