Export Marketing and the World Wide Web: Perceptions of Export Barriers among Tirupur Knitwear Apparel Exporters - an Empirical Analysis

The use of Web for export marketing normally enables firms to leapfrog the conventional stages by removing a number of barriers associated with exporting. This study investigates the impact of Web presence on the perception of export barriers among Tirupur knitwear apparel exporters, Indian bricks and mortar manufacturing small firms. A mail survey was conducted among 950 active exporters with 13.6 % response rate. The psychological barriers are found to be the biggest barrier to their export activities. Their overall perception of export barriers decreases significantly with their advancement in the business growth stage, and not with their company’s age. However, in the company age group of less than 10 years, exporters with Web presence significantly differ in their perception from other exporters. Even though a number of patterns are observed, in the other age group and at all the business growth stages the differences in their perception of export barriers remain insignificant. It is concluded that the functionalities of these exporters’ Websites are of primitive in nature and not being effectively exploited.