Export performance under the microscope: A glance through Spanish lenses

The aim of the paper is to provide a comprehensive picture of the export performance determinants of Spanish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by jointly studying the influence of internal (managerial and organisational) and external (environmental) antecedents as well as responding to recent calls for research in the international business literature by investigating the potential relationship existing between objective and subjective (perceptual) measures of export performance. Based on the literature review and mainly embedded in the resource-based view of the firm, the proposed conceptual model is tested within a sample of Spanish exporting firms using regression analysis and structural equation modelling. The results show that managerial foreign language skills and international business knowledge, firm's export commitment as well as the technological intensity of the industry are the most influencing antecedents of export performance. Moreover, a strong positive relationship is observed between the objective and subjective export performance measures. The authors draw several concluding remarks highlighting the contributions, implications and limitations of the study before discussing some future research directions.