Marketing learning by exporting – how export-induced marketing expenditures improve firm performance

The learning opportunities from exporting are a core theme of International Business research. Learning by exporting research has primarily discussed the technological learning outcomes associated with exports. We integrate theoretical mechanisms from this literature into a model of learning in the marketing function. We hypothesize that firms that are confronted with novel pricing, packaging, distribution or design strategies on export markets will be able to exploit them productively, as evidence of learning by exporting in marketing. We test our predictions using panel data of Spanish manufacturing firms for 1990–2009 and find suggestive evidence for the positive effect of export-induced marketing expenditures on firm productivity. These learning effects are however lower compared with technological learning via R&D.