EXPORT BARRIERS AND EXPORT PERFORMANCE SEAFOOD INTO INTERNATIONAL MARKETS

The purpose of this paper is to identify main export barriers and to test empirically their impact their on export performance of seafood firms, Vietnam, targeting the U.S market. Reviewing the literature and using expert opinions, 5 factors of the export barrier were identified. A structured questionnaire was applied to survey managers of 152 seafood firms and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to categorize variables in 5 the barrier dimensions. Then, a structural equation model was developed to determine which dimension has a greater negative effect on export performance. This model identifies the export barrier of products dimension (-0.168), the barrier of price dimension (-0.130), the barrier of distribution dimension (-0.222), the barrier of promotion dimension (+ 0.101) and logistic dimension have a significant negative impact on export performance (-0.156) have a effective export barriers to the export performance of seafood. Based on the relative importance of the different marketing barriers, seafood firms should firstly focus on quality improvements in order to improve their export performance.