Export Performance: A Conceptualization and Empirical Assessment

Export performance has been a central construct in the study of export marketing. Several studies have attempted to identify organizational and managerial antecedents of export performance and assess the relative importance of these antecedents. However, despite these fruitful efforts, there is little agreement in the literature about a conceptual definition of export performance, as well as about its operational definition. This article follows up on two previous articles that dealt with export performance conceptually (Madsen 1987; Shoham 1991) and uses a similar, three-dimensional conceptualization of export performance. This conceptualization is explored empirically with data from 93 Israeli exporters. The data indicate that there are indeed three dimensions to export performance, though the structure of these dimensions is somewhat different from expectations.