Empirical Research on Export Barriers: Review, Assessment, and Synthesis

TLDR

The study reviews, assesses, and synthesizes empirical research on factors that impede the initiation, development, or sustainment of export activities. The authors conducted a systematic review of 35 studies, evaluating both conceptual and empirical evidence and noting methodological shortcomings. The review found that research remains largely conceptual, methodologies are often unsophisticated, and no consistent pattern emerges, with limited market information being the strongest inhibitor of export behavior.

Abstract

The article attempts to review, assess, and synthesize existing empirical research on factors impeding the initiation, development, or sustainment of export activities. The investigation covered 35 studies and revealed that from the conceptual aspect, research on the subject is still at the identification and conceptualization stage. It was also demonstrated that the methodologies adopted were unsophisticated and flawed in some respects. On the empirical side, no uniform pattern was observed in the findings of the studies investigated. An aggregation of the empirical data, however, revealed that the existence of limited information to locate and analyze foreign markets had the greatest inhibiting effect on export behavior. The influence of some export barriers was also found to vary according to certain methodological parameters. Finally, an attempted classification of export barriers revealed no significant differences among the resulting categories as to their inhibiting impact on exporting.