Cooperative strategy, knowledge intensity and export performance of small and medium sized enterprises

A model depicting the relationships among cooperative strategy, knowledge intensity and export performance is developed and tested using a sample of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) from Finland and Norway. The empirical results suggest that knowledge intensity mediates the relationship between cooperative strategy and export performance. Firm size did not show a direct impact on performance, but its indirect effect on export performance through cooperative strategy and knowledge intensity was significant. Overall, the results suggest that SMEs employing cooperative strategies to enrich their knowledge base about export markets can consequently improve their performance. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.