Capturing institutional home country conditions for exporting SMEs

In line with recent developments in institutional theory that indicate institutional settings can explain cross-national differences, this article proposes a measure of the institutional country profile relevant to exporting small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Combined emic and etic research approaches suggest a scale, derived through in-depth interviews with French and Romanian managers in SMEs and tested with 107 French export managers. The scale is psychometrically sound and supports a three-dimensional country institutional profile of exporting SMEs that comprises regulative, cognitive, and normative dimensions. The institutional profile of a country can complement, if not substitute for, culture as an explanation of export behavior. Furthermore, the proposed instrument can help researchers and managers diagnose countries' exporting strengths and weaknesses, according to their institutional conditions.