IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/worlde/v42y2019i2p349-375.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Firm strategies in expanding and diversifying exports

Author

Listed:
  • Martina Lawless
  • Iulia Siedschlag
  • Zuzanna Studnicka

Abstract

This paper provides novel empirical evidence on the patterns and dynamics of exports by Irish firms over the past two decades from a highly detailed data set of export records at the firm‐product‐destination level. We identify patterns of export concentration and specialisation and how these evolved over time. Firms’ strategies for export growth along product and destination markets mixes are then examined and the contributions of intensive (average sales) and extensive (number of products or markets) margins to overall exports and to export growth are calculated. We find that most exporting firms are quite small, selling a few products to a small number of destinations while export values are dominated by a relatively small group of highly globalised large firms selling many products to many destinations. Continuing exporters frequently introduce new products, drop products and enter and exit markets. Export growth in the case of Irish‐owned exporters appears largely driven by the extensive margin of product and destination changes. However, the opposite pattern holds for foreign‐owned firms with growth mainly coming from the intensive margin.

Suggested Citation

  • Martina Lawless & Iulia Siedschlag & Zuzanna Studnicka, 2019. "Firm strategies in expanding and diversifying exports," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 349-375, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:42:y:2019:i:2:p:349-375
    DOI: 10.1111/twec.12702
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/twec.12702
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/twec.12702?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Martina Lawless & Zuzanna Studnicka, 2019. "Products or Markets: What Type of Experience Matters for Export Survival?," Working Papers 201923, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    2. Kemal Türkcan & Socrates Majune Kraido & Eliud Moyi, 2022. "Export margins and survival: A firm‐level analysis using Kenyan data," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 90(2), pages 149-174, June.
    3. Martina Lawless & Zuzanna Studnicka, 2024. "Old Firms and New Export Flows: Does Experience Increase Survival?," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 215-243, April.
    4. Martina Lawless & Zuzanna Studnicka, 2019. "Old Firms and New Export Flows: Does Experience Increase Survival?," Working Papers 201919, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    5. Joseph Phiri & Karel Malec & Socrates Kraido Majune & Seth Nana Kwame Appiah-Kubi & Zdeňka Gebeltová & Sylvie Kobzev Kotásková & Mansoor Maitah & Kamil Maitah & Patricia Naluwooza, 2021. "Durability of Zambia’s Agricultural Exports," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, January.
    6. Matteo Bugamelli & Andrea Linarello & Roberta Serafini, 2019. "The 'Margin call'. Export experience and firm entry into new export markets," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 536, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    7. Silviano Esteve‐Pérez, 2021. "Previous experience, experimentation and export survival: Evidence from firm‐product‐destination level data," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(9), pages 2638-2682, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:42:y:2019:i:2:p:349-375. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0378-5920 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.