The relationship between export market orientation and international performance in the context of SMEs

The purpose of this study is to provide new insights into the relationship between “export market orientation” and “export performance”, by using empirical data from a sample of Italian coffee roasting companies, that are mostly small and medium sized firms. Coffee bean roasting is one of the most representative industries of the Made in Italy sector abroad and it controls a significant international market share. In a more and more competitive and turbulent market context (such as the international coffee market) having the capability to acquire market information and use it more effectively than the competitors do becomes fundamental for survival. Firms can use this information to adapt to market changes and deliver superior value in order to satisfy customers’ needs. In other words, it can be inferred that market orientation is a critical to a firm’s success. In the literature there are two major conceptualizations of market orientation; the first is the MKTOR model (Narver and Slater, 1990) which embraces a cultural perspective, and the second is the MARKOR model (Kohli and Jaworsky, 1990) which embraces a behavioral perspective. The performance implications of market orientation has received considerable empirical attention, but few studies examine this relationship in the international context. These few studies have shown that market orientation is a significant determinant of export performance. Given the aim of this study, which is to explore firms’ behavior in foreign markets, we follow the behavioral perspective and we adapt the measurement model of export market orientation developed by Cadogan et al. (2001); this is based on the following three components: 1) export market intelligence generation; 2) export market intelligence dissemination; 3) export market responsiveness. Each one of these components was examined and linked to export performance. Overall, the contribution of the study is twofold: to validate a measurement model of export market orientation in the Italian context of SMEs and to confirm/disconfirm the findings of the extant literature.