Learning by exporting for marketing innovation

ABSTRACT Exporting provides important learning opportunities for firms. Learning by exporting literature has primarily focused on general performance outcomes of learning such as productivity or technological innovation outcomes such as patents or product innovation. We use learning mechanisms from this literature and develop arguments for marketing innovation outcomes of learning by exporting. We further theorise how learning outcomes vary across firms depending on firms’ levels of marketing and technological capabilities. We test these hypotheses using a panel of Spanish manufacturing firms for 2007–2013 and find that exporting is associated with more marketing innovations. This learning effect is stronger for firms with leading marketing capabilities, and this effect is independent from the technological leadership status of the firm.