The STEP Scale: A Measure of Short-Term Export Performance Improvement

Abstract

This article is a direct response to a recent observation in the literature that managers appear to be short-term oriented in their assessment of the performance of an export venture (Madsen 1998). On the basis of a cross-national survey of exporting firms, the authors present a three-dimensional scale for assessing managerial judgment of short-term export performance (i.e., the STEP scale). The three dimensions are (1) satisfaction with short-term performance improvement, (2) short-term exporting intensity improvement, and (3) expected short-term performance improvement. The scale presents evidence of reliability as well as convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity, and it reveals factorial similarity and factorial equivalence across both samples. The authors outline managerial and public policy implications that stem from the scale and identify avenues for further export marketing research.

Resource determinants of strategy and performance: The case of British exporters

“…Measures of export performance are usually categorized into two broad groups: (i) financial/economic measures (sales-related indicators, profit-related indicators, or market sharerelated indicators), and (ii) non-financial/non-economic measures (perceived export success, achievement of export objectives, satisfaction with export performance, or strategic export performance). While in the early empirical studies export performance was operationalized as a unidimensional or singleitem measure (Gemunden, 1991), the more recent research has advanced more complex export performance constructs in the form of multidimensional, multi-item measures Lages and Lages, 2004).…”

The Effects of the Degree of Internationalization on Export Performance: A Research on Exporters in Turkey

“…Export performance was calculated as shown below with a 2 item 5-point Likert scale (1 = very low, 2 = low, 3 = moderate, 4 = high, 5 = very high) utilizing the related literature (Lages and Lages, 2004;Lages et al, 2005;Diamantopoulos and Siguaw, 2006): -Export sales volume -Export profitability These two dimensions, which are perhaps the two most significant performance measurement variables for many international companies, are addressed as dimensions that demonstrate the objective performance of companies in the internationalization process. Findings and measurements obtained in the present study are discussed below.…”

The effect of firm characteristics and the propensity to export decision in food industry

“…Competitive advantage influences on the propensity to export decision in food industry (Lages & Lages, 2004).…”