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Although both institutional export assistance and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) contribute separately and positively to export performance, the interplay between them has received little attention. This study examines the role of international EO in deriving performance benefits from governmental and nongovernmental export assistance.

In this longitudinal study, two surveys were administered at two different times: In 2011, 705 Bangladeshi apparel exporters were surveyed, and in 2019, a subsequent survey of 198 firms in multiple industries was conducted. The aim of the surveys was to assess the relationships between governmental and nongovernmental assistance, EO and export performance.

The results of the first survey show that, while nongovernmental assistance influences performance directly and via EO, governmental assistance has only direct effects. Furthermore, the negative influence of government assistance on EO reduces the total effects and renders them nonsignificant. The results of the second survey demonstrate that government EPPs have both direct and indirect positive and significant effects on market performance, indicating a partial mediation, whereas quasi-governmental assistance has positive and significant direct effects as well as negative but nonsignificant indirect effects. Nongovernmental EPPs have both direct and indirect significant effects on international performance, indicating a partial mediation.

The study has important implications for researchers studying export assistance and its impact on firm performance. Instead of adopting a parochial view of government assistance, this study categorizes such assistance into three types – government, quasi-government and nongovernment. Furthermore, this study bridges the export assistance and international entrepreneurship literature by including EO.

Entrepreneurs must emphasize the use of government assistance in order to enhance export performance. However, to promote both entrepreneurship and performance, they must emphasize nongovernment assistance. Exporters should also capitalize on the assistance extended by various quasi-governmental agencies to bolster export performance.

Given the performance advantage of export assistance, this study highlights the contribution of the private sector in promoting export entrepreneurship while shedding light on the pernicious role of (quasi-)governmental assistance in export entrepreneurship.

The significance of market orientation (MO) in industrial marketing literature is immense. Separately, the role of dynamic managerial capability (DMC) as an individual-level capability has been found to be beneficial to business-to-business (B2B) transactions. However, the assessments of DMC as the antecedent to complement MO in achieving firm performance are rare. To address this knowledge gap, this study builds upon a research framework on the DMC theory and MO literature. Additionally, this study aims to investigate how export assistance avails MO-firm performance relationship and assists entrepreneurs to thrive in the international market.

The research was conducted among the entrepreneurial export manufacturing firms in the apparel industry in Bangladesh. Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the hypothesized relationship among 329 firms.

Two attributes of DMC, namely, managerial social capital and managerial cognition of entrepreneurs improve the MO process of export manufacturing firms. MO mediates the relationship between DMC and firm performance. Additionally, export assistance positively moderates the relationship between MO and the financial performance of the firm.

MO requires complementary capabilities to realize the value of it efficiently. This study strongly advocates entrepreneurs to nurture DMC to leverage MO and capitalize on emerging opportunities by productively using export assistance. Firms in the emerging economies often suffer from resource-scarcity and export assistance mitigates barriers to expand international operations and yield financial liberty to the firms operating in the international B2B market.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contingent relationship between government marketing assistance for export and the performance of early internationalizing firms in a developing country’s low-tech industry.

The authors employ hierarchical multiple regression based on the data obtained from Bangladesh, a south Asian developing country and a leading exporter of apparel products worldwide. The authors used a sample of 224 early internationalizing apparel firms to test the hypotheses.

Research describes the relationship between export assistance and performance as direct. Recently, some researchers have suggested moderators between them. The authors argue that the relationship between the two is contingent on the level of export commitment. The authors find that neither informational nor experiential marketing assistance is directly related to export performance. The relationship between informational assistance and export performance is significantly, but (unexpectedly) negatively, moderated by export commitment. The effect of experiential assistance is positively, but only marginally, moderated by export commitment.

Contrary to researchers’ overarching focus on a direct relationship, the authors investigate the moderation on the relationship between export informational and experiential marketing assistance, and early internationalizing firms’ performance in a developing country’s low-tech industry setting. The authors use export commitment as the moderator; it is one of the most important internal determinants of export performance and extremely relevant in early internationalizing firms. The differential impact of informational and experiential assistance provides additional insights.

The article aims to test how pricing strategy adaptation to the foreign market mediates the relationship between export assistance and annual export performance improvement. It also aims to consider the effects of management international experience and export market competition.

Structural equation modelling with WLS estimation is used to test the direct and indirect influences of the variables on short‐term export performance.

Surprisingly, the findings reveal that the total effects of export assistance on annual export performance improvement are non‐significant, because although export assistance has a direct positive impact on performance, there is a negative indirect impact through export pricing strategy adaptation.

These surprising results suggest that future research is required to incorporate and test the intervening and indirect effects among variables.

The findings also indicate that both export assistance and short‐term export performance improve with management international experience and export market competition.

Since both managers and public policy makers are often short‐term oriented, it is urgent to develop research to better understand determinants of short‐term performance as well as the antecedents of managerial and public policy resource allocation in the short term.

In the Spring of 2000, questionnaires regarding the export assistance needs of all 1012 wineries in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho were mailed. These surveys, one for current exporters and one for non‐exporters, were based upon over 25 in‐depth interviews with wine industry executives as well as public, industry and private sector export service providers. Each questionnaire included a section specifically designed to identify and prioritize the assistance needs of exporting and non‐exporting wineries. The 24% return rate enhances the validity of the survey results. The purpose of this research effort is to provide export service intermediaries with an empirical model of the exporting needs of wineries so they can improve the effectiveness of their export assistance programs to enhance the global competitiveness of US wineries. Results suggest that managers in exporting wineries see great value in “advanced” export assistance needs. Managers of non‐exporting wineries place the highest value on more “fundamental” export assistance. Non‐exporters and new exporters place higher value on assistance in finding distributors than experienced exporters. Lastly, venues in which there is an opportunity to network with experienced exporters is seen as a valuable assistance tool by both exporting and non‐exporting wineries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of government assistance programmes on internationalization of SMEs from an Asian developing nation.

Primary data from a sample of 203 SMEs in three export‐oriented industries in Bangladesh were analyzed using structural equations model to examine both direct and indirect causal effects of government assistance on their internationalization.

Results suggest that the usage of market development‐related government assistance significantly influence internationalization directly as well as indirectly via other determinants, whereas finance‐ and guarantee‐related assistance has only indirect effect.

Government export assistance programmes play an important role in the SMEs' internationalization process by contributing to a number of firm‐ and management‐related factors that determine international marketing performance of a firm. The study provides a guideline for SME managers as to how they can benefit from both categories of export assistance programmes in improving their positive attitudes towards the export market environment, building their knowledge and enhancing commitment to exporting for better success in their international operations.

The importance of export assistance programmes is well recognized in the literature but its causal effect on internationalization of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) is low. The paper tries to fill this gap by reporting the results of an empirical study examining effects of government assistance programmes on internationalization of SMEs from an Asian developing nation, where there is a gross dearth of research.

Although there is great deal of research on export assistance programmes in developed countries, studies on developing countries in Africa has received scant attention in the literature. Lack of detailed information in many developing African countries makes it difficult to assess the effect of export promotion programmes (EPPs) on the firm’s export performance in foreign markets. The purpose of this paper is to explore entrepreneurial development in the value-added export sector of Ghana and screen EPPs provided by public policy makers to examine the impact of these programmes on export performance of Ghanaian firms in foreign markets.

A conceptual/exploratory paper is developed with discussion.

The paper suggests that the ability of exporters to enhance their performance is driven by the usage of outside market access, export development/training and information related export assistance programmes offered by public policy makers. Utilisation of EPPs builds experiential knowledge which serves as a source of competitive advantage for exporters to implement effective marketing mix strategies to enhance performance.

The study underscores the specific EPPs export managers can utilise to enhance performance and improve their international marketing strategy in foreign markets. Public policy makers need to work together with exporters to incorporate and develop programmes to suit the idiosyncrasies of foreign markets and boost the growth of value-added exports.

The study explores past literature to screen and evaluate the effect of EPPs and entrepreneurial development to boost export growth in Ghana – Sub-Sahara Africa.

Reports on one part of a study which investigates selected aspects of the export behaviour and assistance requirements of exporters of agricultural and related products in the UK. Specifically, it focuses on results concerning firms’ perceived barriers to exporting and their assistance requirements. Statistical analysis of responses to a postal survey are presented which establish that differences exist between firms operating within the particular trade sub‐sectors under investigation in relation to both their perceived barriers to exporting and assistance requirements. Selected data from subsequent interviews are also reported. In turn, implications for policy makers within the respective government departments are discussed in relation to the way in which assistance might be more effectively provided.

This study aims to analyze the individual and joint effects of institutional support by government and nongovernment institutions on early internationalizing firms’ (EIFs) performance. It also investigated the moderating impact of firm age and size on the institutional support-firms’ export performance relationships.

Data were collected from 705 EIFs in the apparel industry of Bangladesh and analyzed with hierarchical regression.

The positive influence of institutional support on exporting firms’ financial performance is stronger for the joint effect of government and nongovernment assistance than the individual impact. Firms’ size positively moderates the impact of individual government and nongovernment assistance, while age positively moderates their resource-bundling effect.

The findings suggest the necessity of integrating resources from diverse but complementary sources of institutional support for superior export performance. The findings also show the presence of the liability of smallness and liability of newness in the standalone and joint influence of institutional support, respectively.

Firms need to bundle resources obtained from the government (unrequited) and nongovernment (reciprocal) institutional support to overcome the liability of smallness they might encounter while availing of support from only one source.

Distinguishing between government and nongovernment institutional support, this paper sheds light on exporting firms’ resource-bundling mechanism for these two sources of support in the backdrop of an emerging economy. It also offers fresh insights into the critical role of the liabilities of newness and smallness in early internationalization, especially with regard to the home-country institutional environment.

Export information acquisition has mostly been examined disparately as researchers have tended to focus on certain modes of information acquisition independently of others. Furthermore, past studies have typically employed single‐item measures to operationalize information acquisition. The present study attempts to redress these deficiencies by considering a comprehensive set of export information acquisition modes and by developing psychometrically sound measures for each. The results show the adequacy of considering three broad export information acquisition modes (export marketing research, export assistance, and export market intelligence), each of which is operationalized by means of a multi‐item scale. The latter are shown to be reliable and to possess content, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity.