Abstract

Since its introduction, market orientation (MO) has emerged as a major construct within the strategic management literature. Efforts have also been made to extend the concept into export operations. In contrast to MO, empirical studies of export market orientation (EMO) is relatively limited, and most of the studies tend focus on the direct causal relationship between EMO and performance. From a resource-based perspective, however, EMO may not influence performance directly, but only a mediating effect by facilitating strategic actions that direct affect performance. In this study, a structural equation modeling is employed to examine the role that export strategies play in the context of the relationship between EMO and export performance. The research results, based on 142 small export manufacturing firms suggest EMO influences performance directly as well as indirectly via export strategies. This partial mediating evidence provides a further understanding of how the EMO construct is related to performance.