Export market orientation: Performance, timing, and extent of internationalization

This dissertation presents the results of research relating to the theories of internationalization and export market orientation (EMO). It examines factors associated with each theory and seeks to integrate them to gain a better understanding of how businesses succeed in the international marketplace. Recent international business literature identifies several empirical anomalies and suggests several theoretical inconsistencies. The international business literature of the past three decades focuses primarily on the processes or stages that firms pass through on the road to becoming international and theorizes about what motivates firms to internationalize. More recent studies show that internationalization process and stage theories may not fully explain the emergence of "born global" companies---those companies that enter the international market place immediately upon inception. The literature also suggests that other business disciplines are increasingly addressing international contexts in their research. Marketing theory, and market orientation theory in particular, increasingly focuses on factors impacting the success of internationally operating firms. This dissertation draws from both the international business literature with its focus on internationalization processes and the international marketing literature with its focus on customers and markets. It attempts to integrate aspects of both theoretical approaches to determine the relationships between a firm's export market entry timing, its level of EMO, and its overall export performance. Tests of research hypotheses provide support for several EMO predictive variables (e.g., export systems, export dependency and export leadership). The results also affirm published findings of the positive relationship between a firm's level of EMO activity and its overall export performance. The results provide no support the hypothesized mediating effects of export experience and environmental turbulence factors. A firm's speed of entry into export activity does appear to relate positively to both a firm's level of EMO activity and its overall level of export performance.