Toward a model of the relationship between internationalization and export performance

The study investigates for the first time the relationship between internationalization and export performance in a comprehensive model. Drawing on the literature on internationalization as an incremental process and on export performance, we connect these important areas of research using a structural equations model that includes international experience, international commitment, and level of internationalization, on the one hand, and a two-dimensional construct of export performance comprising a strategic and an economic dimension, on the other. The empirical findings provide support both for the interplay among the three internationalization constructs as well as for the influence of level of internationalization on export performance. The study also addresses several specific research gaps that have been identified in past research, most importantly by including a distinct construct of level of internationalization and paying particular attention to the reflective versus formative specification of the relationships between key constructs and their measures. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.