Innovative Capabilities as Determinants of Export Performance and Behaviour: A Longitudinal Study of Manufacturing SMEs

The Impact of Working Capital Management on Profitability: The Case of Small and Medium-Sized Export Companies in Tunisia

“…Indeed, maintaining a large inventory implies using capital to finance it and to cover different costs (transport, insurance, storage, obsolescence, spoilage…) (Long and al., 1993;Deloof and Jegers, 1996). However, keeping a low inventory level may lead to lost sales and stock-out (Deloof, 2003).…”

“…A flexible trade credit policy with an interest on receivables may increase sales (Long and al., 1993;Deloof and Jegers, 1996). However, such practice can be expensive due to the lock up of money in working capital (Guariglia and Mateut, 2006).…”

“…As the company matures, it may build its capabilities to compete in the international market. However, younger companies may be (Lefebvre and Lefebvre, 2001). Tunisian export SMEs are expected to exhibit a low profitability during the first years of export activity.…”

Gender and Export Propensity

“…Gaining a better understanding of the role of gender may further our understanding of SME exporting in general. Hence, scholars have called for more empirical studies to examine SME exporting (Lefebvre and Lefebvre, 2000;Andersson and Wictor, 2003;Zahra, 2005) and this work responds to these appeals. Second, encouraging entrepreneurial firms to internationalize represents an economic development opportunity.…”

How do Indian Multinationals Affect Exports from Home Country?

“…They are important sources of price and non-price competitiveness, crucial in the global market. The importance of innovative activities in export performance has been confirmed statistically in many studies: Daniels (1993) on a cross country sample for technology-intensive manufactures, Kumar and Siddharthan (1994) on some relatively low technology intensive Indian industries, Braunerhjelm (1996) on a sample of Swedish firms, Wakelin (1998) and Bleaney and Wakelin (1999) on U.K. firms, Lefebvre and Lefebvre (2001) on Canadian SMEs, and Sterlacchini (2001) on Italian firms.…”