Export personnel perceptions of export performance to China market

Abstract

Expanding the non-oil exporting products of the Petrochemical Industry is one of the main strategies in Iran’s economy development plan. This move has created emerging markets that provide many international business opportunities for Iranian companies. The importance of this study stems from the need to study the determinants of Iranian Petrochemical Industry export performance in China because it is the second highest importer of Iranian products. Besides that, it is also a prominent economic giant in the world today. There is also a need to develop a theoretical framework for researching the export performance phenomenon such as in the case of Iran and China economic relashionship. Thus, this study is based on the complex and confusing findings about the determinants of export performance, as well as the lake of coherence and the agreement among researchers on the parameters of an export performance model. This study investigated the following: effects of external determinants comprising export market and domestic market characteristics, internal determinants inclusive of management skills based characteristics, management attitudinal characteristics, firm characteristics and the marketing strategy related to export performance. These multiple-informant data were collected from 76 respondents who are working in the export or sale departments of petrochemical companies. A structural equation modeling (SEM), specifically Partial Least Squares (PLS) was applied to evaluate the relationships between the constructs and to estimate the measurement and structural parameters proposed. The social science statistical package (SPSS) software (version 18) and smart-PLS software (Smart-PLS 2.M3) were employed in the analysis. The results revealed that the export marketing strategy had positive and significant relationship with export performance. In the conceptual model, the export marketing strategy pointed to the importance of the strategy as a mediator when examining export market characteristics, skill based characteristics, attitudinal characteristics and the influence of a firm’s characteristics on export performance. Besides that, the export market characteristics and domestic market characteristics (external factors) also had significant effects on export performance. Furthermore, it was found that attitudinal characteristics as internal determinants have a significant effect on export performance. The outcomes of this investigation have shown that Iranian companies can enhance their business performance in the international market by paying more attention to the determinants and key success factors identified in this study. Finally, the results of this study would contribute towards understanding the export performance phenomenon in relation to the expansion of Iran’s the non-oil product export aimed at developing the country’s economy.