Abstract:
This study aims to highlight the importance of export in the growth of economy especially in
developing countries during globalization. Aggressive export growth of a country is not
possible without effective marketing practices, while, to know the impact of marketing
practices, it is necessary to identify and quantify the direct or indirect causal relationship
between marketing determinants and export performance.
The study focuses on Resource Based View (RBV) of exports. The export firms in
manufacturing industries of textile, food group and marble industry are unit of analysis. The
export performance scale developed by Zou, Fang, and Zhao (2003) is adapted and refined in
accordance with several other studies. Substantively, this study empirically investigates the
degree of relationship among product strategies, placement strategies, pricing strategies and
promotional activates (Explanatory variables) with exports performance of the firms
(Dependent variable). While, branding and costing strategies are considered as mediating
variables. The study applies the basic marketing concepts because to the best of my
knowledge, no prior research is available in this context in Pakistan. It is preliminary
marketing research to test export marketing theory in order to determine if it is supported by
real world evidence in Pakistan. Therefore, present study is an effort to fill the literature gap
for academicians in the field of export marketing in Pakistan. At the same time, it offers
detailed insight and recommendations to policy makers and managers to enhance marketing
capabilities.
For estimation, Correlation followed by Regression analysis, as a most popular and
standard analytical approach in measuring export performance is adopted. Wherein, a commonly
used method known as Ordinary Least Square (OLS) is applied to draw inference about
population regression function. Diverse set of approaches are also used, such as the t-test ,
ANOVA and log linear model to confirm the results. Using survey data of 141 export ventures
from selected industries of Pakistan, the analytical findings reveal that there is direct significant
relationship among marketing determinants i.e product, pricing and placement with export
performance while promotional strategies are not contributor in export performance due to
negative relation. Moreover, branding and costing strategies partially mediate marketing - export
performance relationship with different effects. When both branding and costing mediated it
weakens the relationship among marketing strategies and export performance as compare to direct
relationship while when branding is mediated separately, it strengthens the relation of export
performance with product, pricing and promotional strategies and placement becomes
insignificant. Conversely, as compare to branding when only costing is mediated separately it
only strengthen the value of placement. These findings justify the notion that export marketing
strategies are considered as one of the important factor in improving export performance. Hence,
effective marketing practices can play a vital role in export’s growth of Pakistan as national
prosperity is created not inherited (Porter, 1985).