Export performance as a function of market learning capabilities and intrapreneurship: SEM and FsQCA findings

This study draws on the resource-based, dynamic capabilities, and organization learning theories to investigate the internal mechanisms through which intrapreneurship influences current and future export performance. Specifically, this approach views the four distinct dimensions of intrapreneurship, namely new business venturing, innovativeness, self-renewal, and proactiveness, as critical resources, and export market exploitation and exploration as important market learning capabilities. The study posits that such resources and capabilities collectively contribute to improve export performance outcomes. The study develops a theoretically anchored model and employs both structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to test the model relationships. These two techniques have different foci: the net effect of an independent variable on an outcome variable and the conditions that lead to a given outcome, respectively. The study results provide substantial support for the theoretical framework and a valuable addition to the scant literature on the roles of intrapreneurship and market exploitation and exploration in exporting.