Influences of managerial drivers on export sales units' performance of small and medium-size enterprises

This report offers a contribution to the theories related to firms' export performance. Job satisfaction and behavioral and outcome performance of export managers have received attention in export literature. However, the relationships between export managers’ rewards system and the level of export managers’ morale with export managers’ job satisfaction, behavioral and outcome performance, and export sales units’ performance of small and medium-size enterprises have not thoroughly been examined, tested, or validated. A new model is developed based on export managerial psychology theory, which integrates two constructs, the export managers’ rewards and level of morale, as critical variables affecting export performance. The research findings suggest that four connected relationships in a PLS model are positive, significant, and substantial. Particularly, managers’ financial and nonfinancial rewards influence managers’ level of morale, which in turn affects managers’ behavioral performance, and managers' behavioral performance influences managers’ outcome performance, which, finally, affects firms’ export performance.