Export patterns: Typology development and application to Estonian data

• We developed a typology of 13 main export patterns and 11 sub-patterns.
• 69% of Estonian exporters reduced or stopped exporting to at least one market.
• 58% of exporters exported only for 1 year.
• True born globals and traditional (slow) internationalizers were rare.
• Many firms had a low export share and/or a small number of export markets.

As exporting is the most common internationalization form, previous studies have tried categorizing export patterns but without using a full population of a particular country's firms for finding out how often every pattern occurs. We aim to develop a typology of 13 main export patterns and 11 sub-patterns and identify the frequency of each export pattern using detailed firm- and market-level export data for the population of Estonian firms. We conclude that 69% of Estonian exporters (excluding 1st-year exporters) reduced or stopped exporting to at least one market, 58% exported only for 1 year and that true born globals and traditional (slow) internationalizers were rare: many firms started exporting soon after foundation but had a low export share and/or a small number of export markets.