Impact of Controllable Factors on Export Performance of SMEs in Jordan

Abstract

Exporting is of great interest for SMEs in Jordan from both microeconomic and macroeconomic perspective. The objective of this study was to identify to what extent specific internal factors contribute to export success of SMEs in Jordan. This study hypothesized that export performance of SMEs is directly affected by three groups of internal factors. These include firm characteristics, managerial characteristics, and marketing strategy. A multiple case approach is used to conduct this research and a structured interview is developed to collect the data directly from the participants. A pattern matching approach was used to test the hypotheses. The results show that export performance is positively affected by firm characteristics, managerial characteristics, and marketing strategy. Additionally, the demographic characteristics of managers and adaptation of distribution channels are unlikely to have an influence on export performance. This was unexpected, because of the plenty of empirical evidences in the literature that support the impact of these variables on export success.