The impact of financial and human resources on the export performance of Russian firms

•Even after controlling for size and time effects, an increase in the availability of human resources by 1 position according to the Opora Russia Index lowers the hazard rates for exporters by 3.3-4.3%. Similarly, an increase in the availability of financial resources for exporters lowers the hazard rates by 5.0-6.9%.•The highlighted effects of the availability of financial and human resources decrease over time and are more important for larger exporters. Thus, there is evidence of a learning curve for exporters when the latter become more efficient in dealing with resources and the regulatory environment over time.•Our results on the higher positive effects from improvements in the availability of human and financial resources for larger export flows may have important economic policy implications at the national and regional levels. Since larger exporters (exporters with larger export values) benefit more from improvements in the availability of resources, policy measures aimed at such improvements should require co-financing from larger companies. This is especially important for the Russian economy, where there is relatively limited spending on support measures for exporters at the national and regional level and, simultaneously, only larger companies can afford co-financing policy support measures.

This study contributes to the literature by investigating for the first time the effects of the entrepreneurial environment on export survival in Russia. Using the continuous-time Cox model and discrete-time complementary log-log and probit models, we study the effects of the availability of human and financial resources on export survival across Russian regions between 2002 and 2010. Taking into account uncertainty and time effects reveals that these effects are falling over time and are more important for larger exporters. Thus, there is evidence of a learning curve for exporters when the latter become more efficient in dealing with regional-level resources and the regulatory environment over time.