Differences between Wholesalers in Services and Trade Characteristics, and the Regional Characteristics of Export Profits: Analyzing the Results of Questionnaires (Japanese)

It has already been clarified in Urabe (2019) that the difference of the trading companies' location, whether urban or rural, is not significant to the strengths or profits of these exporting firms. But it is not clear what services rural wholesalers whose exports are smaller than those of urban wholesalers offer, and what methods they use to make profits. In this paper, we analyze whether wholesalers' services and trade characteristics make a difference in profits from exports, and we clarify the regional difference in services by which wholesalers can offer, to consider ideal indirect export methods for rural areas. As results of analyses, it was shown that the export profit margins are high for wholesalers who can offer "product planning" services, the highest ratio of wholesalers who can offer "product planning" services to all wholesalers in the region is Hokuriku, and the scope of services that can be offered by wholesalers in urban areas such as Tokyo and Osaka is wider than that of rural wholesalers. In addition, the results suggest that wholesalers with smaller export volumes should obtain and take advantage of information about their export destinations if they want to increase profits.