The Determinants of the Export Performance: An Empirical Investigation of Internal and External Forces into Taiwan's Electronics Exporters

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to explore why some Taiwan's electronics exporters have better export performance than others and to investigate both internal and external forces affecting the export performance. The comprehensive empirical study initially applied the viewpoint of the joint influence of environment, organization, and strategy in international business and the internal and external forces affecting the export performance and to search out the appropriate match between these factors that best facilitates the Taiwan's electronics exporters and examine which factors are important to export performance. There were totally 13 factors affecting the export performance by this research including both internal forces and external forces. Internal forces include firm characteristics, firm competencies, managerial characteristics. product characteristics and export marketing strategy, and external forces include industry characteristics, export market characteristics, and government export assistance. In this empirical investigation which seeks to provide insights into the internal and external forces and to examine all factors affecting the export performance by simple and multiple regression analysis. Empirical tests of the hypotheses were conducted using mail questionnaire and follow-up call interviews data collected from 200 Taiwan's electronics exporters. The sample was selected form a list of Taiwan's electronics exporters included in TEEMA (Taiwan Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers' Association 2000 – 2001). The sampling selection used a stratified systematic process. Data was analyzed using simple and multiple regression analysis. The statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 9.01 was used in this analysis. The results of hypotheses testing were firm's size, level of export involvement, firm experience, firm commitment, firm export perceptions, product characteristics, export marketing strategies, and industry characteristics. The findings of this study can help both exporters and government sector plan the appropriate strategies in improving the exporter competition advantage to copy with the challenges for enhancing the exporter export performance.