Purpose – An appreciable number of small- and medium-sized exporters have continuously succeeded in their export marketplaces even though they do not possess enough resources. Advocating that affiliation with an export service-provider plays an important role in this phenomenon, we aimed to theoretically explain how export service providers’ competences and relational factors drive small- and medium-sized exporters’ competitive advantages in the long-run. Design/methodology – Drawing prominently on the resource-based view and the relationship marketing theory, we built an empirically testable model. The model showed the roles of exporter capabilities, export service-provider competences, and relational factors on small- and medium-sized exporters’ sustainable competitive advantages. Findings – The results of our research showed that exporter production and branding capabilities positively influenced their sustainable competitive advantage. In addition, export service-providers’ marketing competence and relationship-building competence positively moderated the effects of exporter capabilities on their parties’ sustainable competitive advantages. Finally, affiliation parties’ interfirm trust and relationship commitment positively moderated the effects of export service provider competence on the relationship between exporter capabilities and sustainable competitive advantages. Originality/value – Although prior studies have highlighted the effects of an exporter’s resources on export performance, our research filled a knowledge gap of the effects of other resources on export performance. First, we proposed two types of export service-provider, competence marketing and relationship-building, influencing exporters’ competitive advantage. Second, the effects of relational factors were proposed in the context of export affiliations.

中文翻译：

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与出口服务提供商的联盟对可持续竞争优势的影响：中小型出口商的视角

目的–即使没有足够的资源，也有相当数量的中小型出口商在其出口市场上不断取得成功。提倡与出口服务提供者建立联系在此现象中起重要作用，我们的目的是从理论上解释出口服务提供者的能力和相关因素如何长期驱动中小型出口商的竞争优势。设计/方法论–着重利用基于资源的视图和关系营销理论，我们建立了一个可验证的模型。该模型显示了出口商的能力，出口服务提供商的能力以及中小型出口商的可持续竞争优势的相关因素的作用。调查结果–我们的研究结果表明，出口商的生产和品牌能力对他们的可持续竞争优势产生了积极影响。此外，出口服务提供者的营销能力和建立关系的能力积极地减轻了出口商能力对其当事方可持续竞争优势的影响。最后，隶属方之间的企业间信任和关系承诺积极地减轻了出口服务提供商能力对出口商能力与可持续竞争优势之间关系的影响。原创性/价值-尽管先前的研究强调了出口商的资源对出口绩效的影响，但我们的研究填补了其他资源对出口绩效的影响的知识空白。第一，我们提出了两种类型的出口服务提供者，即能力营销和建立关系，以影响出口商的竞争优势。其次，在出口从属关系的背景下提出了相关因素的影响。