Exporting to escape and learn: Vietnamese manufacturers in global value chains

It is assumed in the international entrepreneurship and international business literatures that firms entering overseas markets possess attributes that are unique and valuable, providing them with an advantage that offsets their liability of foreignness. There is a further assumption that the market knowledge acquired through exporting is independent of export destination. We challenge these two assumptions in a longitudinal study of Vietnamese new venture firms. We report that innovation in these firms is ex-post exporting and not ex-ante as expected. The Vietnamese firms in our study that engage in exporting as international suppliers into global value chains show evidence of process innovation after exporting, but not of product innovation. We also report that exporting to advanced economies enhances process innovation, but that firms exporting to emerging economies neither innovate their processes nor products.