Scottish sustainable internationalisation: what are the determinants of firm exporting?

The aim of this thesis is to estimate which types of firms export and which processes firms go through before becoming exporters. This involves determining which variables, such as age and industry, help determine firms as exporters in Scotland. Other areas investigated include the relationship between exporting intensity and levels of exporting experience across European firms. Previous studies were limited because of the lack of Scottish data, for this a new survey had to be created; this was a challenge to devise and carry out. This part of the thesis was crucial as the information from this survey would then be used to find firms to interview. This involved face to face interviews and phone interviews of the firms, with a member of the management of the firm, which gave further qualitative information to the survey. Additionally another data set, for European firms, was utilized to study other relationships, such as between exporting intensity. In the first empirical chapter, the determinants of exporting are explored: first utilizing the most current information available at the time and then with a self made survey. The next chapter involved interviews of firms chosen from the self made survey; these interviews attempted to discover differences between exporters and non-exporters and examined the motivations and advantages exporters may have had. The last chapter examined other firms in Europe, using a different data set, the purpose of which was to help support the work done on Scottish firms and also to make use of other information, such as on exporting intensity, which was not collected for Scottish firms