Those Most Likely: Identifying Food Processing Firms With Export Potential

This paper suggests an instrument that can be used by export advisors and other export development practitioners to determine whether or not food and beverage processing firms that have not yet actively exported have, in fact, a high probability of ever doing so. The instrument is developed from an empirically based, logistic regression model relating to the management and firm-specific determinants of a firm's export orientation. This model was able to predict the probability of a firm being an "active exporter" with an accuracy of over 84%. The major management attitudes and attributes that appeared to strongly influence whether or not a firm became an active exporter were its management's willingness to commit resources to export development, their attitudinal commitment to export, their recognition of the significance of product price in the firm's market competitiveness, the firm's access to export-specific management skills, and whether or not the manager was tertiary educated. Four of these constructs were then used to develop the suggested instrument.