Examining the Paths from Export Strategic Orientations to Export Performance: The Mediating Role of Export Resource Transformation Capability

• Author: Nkemdilim Iheanachor,Jonathan Annan,Ifedapo Adeleye,Bedman Narteh,Nathaniel Boso
• Published date: 01 March 2018
• Date: 01 March 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21878

207

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com)

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.. • DOI: 10.1002/tie.21878

Correspondence to: Nathaniel Boso, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, LS2 7JT, United Kingdom, +441133432636 (phone), n.boso@leeds

.ac.uk

Examining the Paths

from Export Strategic

Orientations to

Export Performance:

The Mediating Role

of Export Resource

Transformation

Capability

By

Nathaniel Boso

Jonathan Annan

Ifedapo Adeleye

Nkemdilim Iheanachor

Bedman Narteh

FEATURE ARTICLE

208

FEATURE ARTICLE

Thunderbird International Business Review Vol. 60, No. 2 March/April 2018 DOI: 10.1002/tie

Export strategic orientation research suggests that export entrepreneurial orientation ( EO ) and market

orientation ( MO ) directly affect export performance. Based on the dynamic capability theory, this study

hypothesizes that export resource transformation capability is an intervening factor that helps explain

how EO and MO , individually and jointly, impact export performance. Using archival and survey data

from small and medium-sized exporters in the United Kingdom and Nigeria, the study  nds that export

resource transformation capability partially mediates the individual effects of EO and MO on export

performance in both samples. Results further show that export resource transformation capability does

not mediate the joint effect of EO and MO on export performance. The  ndings help provide a more

complete understanding of how export strategic orientations might be related to export performance.

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Introduction

I nternational business research suggests that varia-

tion in a firm ’ s export performance is a function of

changes in its export entrepreneurial and export

market orientations (Cadogan, Kuivalainen, & Sundqvist,

2009 ; Kuivalainen, Sundqvist, & Servais, 2007 ). On the

one hand, export entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is

often conceptualized to be reflective of a firm ’ s general

proclivity to discover/identify and exploit new export

market opportunities (Boso, Cadogan, & Story, 2012 ),

and, as such, it has been central to the international

entrepreneurship thinking (Coviello, McDougall, & Ovi-

att, 2011 ; Covin & Miller, 2014 ). Extant research shows

that variation in a firm ’ s entrepreneurial orientation

causes changes in its export market performance (e.g.,

Guo, Jiang, & Yang, 2014 ; Kuivalainen et al., 2007 ; Zhang,

Ma, & Wang, 2012 ). On the other hand, export market

orientation (MO) is viewed as a central tenet of the

export marketing thought as it entails implementation of

the marketing concept in export markets (Cadogan et al.,

2009 ). It is noted to be reflective of a firm ’ s general ori-

entation toward export market customers, competitors,

and other exogenous factors, and, as such, it is revealed

in the tendency of the firm to generate, disseminate, and

respond to export market intelligence (Cadogan, Paul,

Salminen, Puumalainen, & Sundqvist, 2001 ). The mar-

ket intelligence that is developed is therefore seen as a

resource that earns the firm superior export performance

(Julian, Mohamad, Ahmed, & Sefnedi, 2014 ; Morgan,

Zou, Vorhies, & Katsikeas, 2003 ).

While the view that export strategic orientations have

direct causal effects on export market success is instinc-

tively appealing and has served as a baseline model in

many empirical studies, scholarly works have long ques-

tioned the theoretical adequacy of this view (e.g., Lisboa,

Skarmeas, & Lages, 2011 ; Noble, Sinha, & Kumar, 2002 ;

Wang, 2008 ). For example, Wang ( 2008 ) argues that

a firm ’ s general proclivity toward learning is a missing

link connecting EO to firm performance, and Noble et

al. ( 2002 ) have argued that organizational learning and

innovativeness mediate the causal path between MO

and firm performance. Within the context of exporting,

Lisboa et al. ( 2011 ) find that exploitative and explor-

ative product and market capabilities serve as channels

through which EO affects export performance. In this

study, we follow this later line of reasoning to propose a

theoretical framework to argue that variations in a firm ’ s

EO and MO result in changes in its export performance

through its ability to reconfigure its export-related asset

base (Jantunen, Puumalainen, Saarenketo, & Kyläheiko,

2005 ; Lado, Boyd, & Wright, 1992 ).

The launch of the personal digital assistant (or

PDA) handheld device is a useful example to showcase

our theoretical model. In 1997, Palm Inc., at that time

a subsidiary of USRobotics, launched the PalmPilot Per-

sonal and PalmPilot Professional handheld devices, after

recognizing that there was a market opportunity for an

ultra-small personal computer that enabled users, just by

the touch of a button, to synchronize e-mails, contacts,

schedules, and personal information on a handheld

device with information on their personal computers.

Before taking the risk to commit resources to produce

the devices, the company gathered intelligence to learn

about how potential users would use them. Market intelli-

gence showed that the core tasks for which potential users

would use a handheld device were primarily synchroniz-

ing e-mails and scheduling appointments with contacts.

Palm Inc. then reconfigured its existing hardware and

software systems to add e-mail and network capabilities