Learning from Exporting: New Insights, New Perspectives

This book explores the relationship between exports and productivity. Whilst a body of research indicates that exporters have superior productivity to non-exporters, received wisdom suggests that this is because productive firms became exporters. Robert Salomon approaches this issue from a different angle. He argues that exporters can access diverse knowledge inputs that are not available in the domestic market, and that this knowledge can spill back to the focal firm and, through learning, can foster increased innovation. Therefore, exporting can also make firms more productive.

This book examines how exporters derive such advantages by analyzing the relationship between exporting strategies and innovation, with empirical evidence from a representative sample of manufacturing firms. In contrast to existing findings, this book presents evidence consistent with learning by exporting - albeit in dimensions not previously examined in the literature. Furthermore, the results suggest that exporting strategies influence innovative productivity in complex ways, with important implications for research in international business, strategy, and innovation.

Questioning whether firms actually learn from exporting experiences and how they do so, this unique study will prove a fascinating read for academics, researchers, and government and economic policy makers with an interest in business and management, international business, and of course, exporting.