SME organisational capabilities and export performance

As a result of the increasing tendency towards a global economy, international business involvement is becoming particularly relevant for smaller companies. Exporting constitutes the most popular, quickest and easiest way for many small firms to internationalise. The aim of the paper is to provide a comprehensive picture of the export performance determinants of Italian small and medium sized companies (SMEs) by investigating the potential relationship between organisational capabilities and both objective and subjective measures of performance. Based on the literature review and mainly embedded in the resource-based view of the firm, we uncover a collection of organisational capabilities that are especially salient to these firms and their growing international involvement. The suggested conceptual model is tested within a sample of Italian exporting SMEs using regression analysis. The results show that entrepreneurial and innovative capabilities are the most influential antecedents of both objective and subjective measures of international performance. Environmental learning capabilities are positively and significant related to the subjective indicator, whilst marketing capabilities are insignificantly related to both the measures. Finally, we discuss the managerial implications of our findings