Managerial assessments of export performance: Conceptual framework and empirical illustration

Export performance has long been an issue of concern in the literature; however, there has been little research on managers' evaluations of their firms' performance in the presence of multiple export objectives. This study proposes a framework for understanding managerial assessments of export performance and illustrates its application using the analytic hierarchy process methodology. The framework explicitly acknowledges that the importance of different export objectives may differ both within and between firms and that the latter may also differ in terms of the frame of reference and/or time horizon used when assessing the attainment of objectives. Using this framework, the authors construct a composite index of assessed export performance that allows for valid interfirm comparisons. They use data from an online survey of 171 exporting firms to demonstrate the application of the framework and the assessed export performance index in an empirical setting.