The Influence of the Fit of Export Marketing Strategy and Competitive Strategy on Export Performance from Mediation and Moderation Perspectives

The influence of the export marketing strategy on export performance by assessment of such contextual factors as generic competitive strategies is considered to be under researched. Generic competitive strategies are recognized as fragmentary referred and the least investigated factors which only recently attracted the attention of individual scientists. The research problem is conveyed in the form of the following question: how does the fit between export marketing strategy and competitive strategy affect export performance? Lithuanian companies which operate in the sector of milk and meat processing and export their products were chosen for the empirical verification. Multiple regression analysis (moderated regression and mediation—path analysis) was used to test the hypotheses. The results of the survey revealed that only the distribution adaptation significantly mediates the relationship between cost leadership and export performance. The decrease of cost leadership manifestation level is associated with a higher degree of distribution adaptation that in turn leads to increased export performance. Moderation perspective disclosed that when the level of cost leadership manifestation is low, a higher degree of distribution adaptation significantly determines better export performance.