Measuring Impact of Firm Specific Resources on Export Performance of SMEs A Study of Indian Automobile and Textile

Abstract

Small and Medium Enterprises play an important role in the economic activities of any country, including in exports. The topic of export performance of has attracted considerable attention from researchers worldwide. However, in developing countries, specifically in India, very few studies are available. newlineThis study has addressed the following three research questions: (i) What are the firm specific resources that drive the export performance of Indian SMEs (ii) Why SMEs export or don t export (iii) How do SMEs export? newlineThis thesis has examined the role of firm specific resources in the export performance of Indian automobile and textile SMEs located in the southern and western parts of India. The firm specific resources studied are (i) entrepreneurial resources (ii) knowledge based resources and (iii) property based resources. Under entrepreneurial resources, global mindset, international networking and international experience were studied. Knowledge-based resources include technological and marketing resources, while property based resources cover slack, internally generated financial resources and externally raised financial resources. newlineTo gain better insights into the research, the mixed method of research was used, in which both qualitative and quantitative data were analysed. A total of eight case studies were analysed qualitatively in which four firms were selected from southern India (two from the automobile sector and two from the textile newlinei v newlinesector) and four from western India (two from the automobile sector and two from the textile sector). In the case study method, in-depth personal interviews were conducted at the workplace. In the quantitative study sample, 164 SMEs were analysed spread across both sectors and both zones. In the quantitative study, data was collected from CMIEs data base and through telephonic interviews. newlineThe study found that entrepreneurial resources, knowledge based resources and property based resources played an important role in the export performance of SMEs