Export Barriers and Competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprise in Developing Countries: Case study in Ethiopian Leather Footwear Manufacturing Firms

Export is one of the most important business activities that play a significant role for economic development of nations. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the export barriers and export competitiveness of the Ethiopian Leather Footwear manufacturing firms in particular and the industry in general. Purposively, 100 respondents were selected from 15 exporting firms in the leather industry. In addition, interview was held with some top managers and owners to collect more detail information. The survey data is analyzed using factor analysis and MDS techniques. Using factor analysis, 10 conceptually linked components were empirically identified. Both factor loadings and factor score coefficient results were used to interpretation the factor analysis result. With different perceived intensity, all the export barriers such as government policy, human resource, financial, product quality, marketing knowledge and information, competition barriers are important in impeding the export competitiveness of the industry. Going by the MDS, due to different perceived intensity of the barriers, four clusters of firms were constructed. Hence, based on the topmost barriers, the management of each exporting firms need to give focus to boost the competitiveness level. This implies that policy makers of the exporting firms, the industry and the government in general need to apply differentiated approaches