Purpose

This study uses the notions of institutional harshness and uncertainty avoidance in the home country to explain the choice between direct and indirect exporting strategies by emerging market firms.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on a dataset of 23,256 observations on firms from 32 countries spread over 11 years (2006–2016). Since only some firms undertake exports, the Heckman procedure is used to control for sample self-selection. In the first stage, we predict which firms will choose to export, and, in the second stage, we examine the factors driving the choice made by firms involved in exports between direct and indirect exports strategies.

Findings

The analyses reveal that firms are more likely to choose direct exports when institutional harshness is high and when they are from countries with low uncertainty avoidance. We also find that the strength of the relationship between institutional harshness and the choice of direct exports is moderated at high levels of uncertainty avoidance.

Research limitations/implications

While this study's empirical models account for many firm-level factors as well as home country differences discussed in the literature, we acknowledge there could be other temporal, firm or country idiosyncratic factors not included in our analysis driving the key choices examined in the paper.

Originality/value

This study makes three contributions to exporting literature. First, it highlights the drivers of the choice between direct and indirect exports. This choice is an important facet of exporting strategy and has received scant attention in prior IB research. Second, it demonstrates how the choice between direct and indirect exports is impacted by the degree of the home country's institutional harshness and uncertainty avoidance. Third, it offers insights on how the interaction of formal and informal home market institutional factors influences export strategy.

中文翻译：

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母国机构对直接出口和间接出口选择的影响：新兴市场的观点

目的

本研究使用母国制度严厉和避免不确定性的概念来解释新兴市场公司在直接和间接出口策略之间的选择。

设计/方法/方法

这项研究基于来自11个国家（2006-2016年）的32,256家公司的23,256项观察数据集。由于只有一些公司进行出口，因此使用Heckman程序来控制样本的自我选择。在第一阶段，我们预测哪些公司将选择出口，在第二阶段，我们研究驱动参与出口的公司在直接和间接出口策略之间做出选择的因素。

发现

分析表明，当机构的严厉程度很高且避免回避不确定性较低的国家时，企业更有可能选择直接出口。我们还发现，在避免不确定性的程度很高的情况下，制度苛刻性与直接出口选择之间的关系强度有所减弱。

研究局限/意义

尽管本研究的经验模型考虑了许多企业层面的因素以及文献中讨论的母国差异，但我们承认，我们的分析中可能还存在其他时间，企业或国家特质因素，这些因素驱动了本文所考察的关键选择。

创意/价值

这项研究对出口文献做出了三点贡献。首先，它突出了直接出口和间接出口之间进行选择的驱动力。此选择是导出策略的重要方面，并且在先前的IB研究中很少受到关注。其次，它说明了直接出口和间接出口之间的选择如何受到母国制度严酷程度和避免不确定性的程度的影响。第三，它提供了关于正式和非正式国内市场制度因素的相互作用如何影响出口战略的见解。