The Relationship among past Export Performance, Marketing Mix Adaptation, and Current Export Performance Improvement in Global Marketing Relationships

In this research, the authors extend previous work in international marketing by analyzing the relationship among past performance, marketing strategy adaptation, and current period performance. The impact of internal (management) and external (market) forces on marketing mix adaptation and current export performance is also considered. A survey of over 500 export managers indicates that current period performance improvement (in terms of performance achievement, export intensity, and performance satisfaction in the current year) is influenced by the firm’s commitment to exporting. More importantly, we find that while performance satisfaction feeds performance improvement in the following year, both the previous year’s export intensity and its export performance achievement produce a negative impact on current period performance improvement. Moreover, the level of development in the export market facilitates marketing strategy adaptation in the short-term as does export intensity in the previous year. However, satisfaction with previous year performance negatively influences the degree of distribution adaptation. This finding suggests that the relevance of prior performance to marketing strategy elements and current performance dimensions varies in the short-term depending on the dimension of export performance being considered. Implications for the management of exporting relationships are discussed.