Export Experience, Product Differentiation and Firm Survival in Export Markets

This paper examines the determinants of firm survival in export markets by explicitly taking into account the impact of firms’ previous export market experience and their product differentiation. Utilizing a 16-year panel data set for Japanese manufacturing firms, we employ panel probit estimation to examine the likelihood of exit from export markets. The results of our estimations show, first, that the exit probability from export markets decreased over the export duration. Second, the probability of exiting from export markets tended to be lower when firms were more R&D intensive both prior to and after starting exporting. The first result implies that exporting experience plays an important role in firms’ survival in export markets. Our second result implies that firms producing differentiated products likely have a greater incentive to make upfront investments to start exporting, and these investments, in turn, enable such firms to survive in export markets for a longer period.