THE IMPACT OF INDUSTRY CHARACTERISTICS ON FIRMS’ EXPORT INTENSITY

Joana Reis () and Rosa Forte
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Joana Reis: Faculdade de Economia do Porto

FEP Working Papers from Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto

Abstract: The process of globalization of economies and markets has led firms to consider entry into foreign markets. Exporting is the simplest foreign market entry mode, but also the most common, not requiring high financial and human resources. Hence it is important to study the factors that can affect the firm’s export intensity, measure commonly used to assess the export performance. Several authors have studied the factors that influence the firm’s export performance, but few have addressed the relationship between industry characteristics and export intensity. Thus, the objective of the present study is to analyze the impact of industry characteristics (capital intensity, R&D intensity, labor productivity, export orientation, and concentration level) on the firm’s export intensity, seeking to add empirical evidence to this relatively neglected research area. Based on a sample of 1,425 Portuguese firms during the period 2008-2010, and using panel data estimation, the empirical results show that some industry characteristics (labor productivity, export orientation, concentration), as well as firm characteristics (labor productivity, size) are important determinants of a firm’s export intensity. In particular, we conclude that firm export intensity is positively affected by labor productivity (at industry and firm level), corroborating the idea that firms and governments need to direct their policies towards increased productivity in order to improve competitiveness in foreign markets.

Keywords: Export performance; export intensity; Portuguese firms; industry characteristics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L25 L69 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2014-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cse, nep-eff, nep-int and nep-sbm
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:por:fepwps:524

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