Firm capabilities and export performance of small firms: A meta-analytical review

Parul Gupta and Sumedha Chauhan

European Management Journal, 2021, vol. 39, issue 5, 558-576

Abstract: Despite its importance, there is no clear understanding of the impact of small firms’ capabilities (networking, innovation, and marketing) on their export performance. This article attempts to address this issue with a meta-analysis of 74 recent empirical studies comprising 76 independent samples and covering more than 30 countries. We found that innovation, marketing, and networking capabilities positively influence export performance of small firms. However, the context-dependent nature of these relationships demands a more fine-grained examination. The variations in the ES of these relationships are explained by the role of external business environmental factors prevailing in the country of origin of the firm (developing/developed country and individualism/collectivism culture). We examined the divergent results provided by empirical studies using the moderator analysis. The findings of this article shed light on the role of small firms’ capabilities in enhancing export performance in different contextual settings.

Keywords: Export performance; Small firms; Firm capabilities; Meta-analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263237320301808
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eurman:v:39:y:2021:i:5:p:558-576

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/115/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... me/115/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2020.12.003

Access Statistics for this article

European Management Journal is currently edited by Michael Haenlein

More articles in European Management Journal from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().