Purpose

This paper aims to dissect cross-border contracting practices among exporting businesses. The under-representation of exporter-importer dynamics and the superficial understanding of contracts are the motivation for this exploratory study.

Design/methodology/approach

The qualitative multiple case study design focuses on 18 small to medium size enterprise (SMEs) exporting from New Zealand. The analysis encompasses coding, pattern matching and explanation building. This paper uses coding to uncover themes and pattern matching/cross-case comparison to facilitate explanation building.

Findings

The paper underlines the scant use of formal international sales/distribution contracts, the lack of knowledge concerning contracting, barriers to contract formation, misgivings about the court system and litigation and the adoption of proxy contracts. This paper depicts varieties of contracting practices, namely, no formal contract, improvisational, normative, and formal contractual arrangements and underlines the context in which each approach applies.

Research limitations/implications

Similar to most studies in this area, the dissection of contracting practices derives from the exporter side of the dyad. This robs the research of a holistic view of the exchange. Nonetheless, this paper contributes to a better understanding of contract formation and formalization and to the role of context in shaping the activities of exporting SMEs.

Practical implications

Although formal contracts are vital, they are not obligatory in all exchanges. Contracts matter more for high intensity exporters with comparatively short relationship histories, selling knowledge-intensive products in predominantly non-relational cultures. Policymakers should highlight the importance of contracts in such contexts and direct SMEs to several freely available resources on cross-border contracting.

Social implications

The research casts fairness/equity and access to justice as pertinent structural disadvantages impacting the contracting practices of exporting SMEs.

Originality/value

According to the authors’ knowledge, this paper is among the first studies to provide an in-depth portrayal of the contracting practices of exporting SMEs, to detail the pervasiveness of non-contractual contracting practices and to depict contracting as nuanced and context-dependent.

中文翻译：

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“算了，我们握手吧”：出口中小企业的承包实践

目的

本文旨在剖析出口企业的跨境承包做法。进出口商动态的代表性不足和对合同的肤浅理解是这项探索性研究的动机。

设计/方法/方法

定性多案例研究设计侧重于从新西兰出口的 18 家中小型企业 (SME)。分析包括编码、模式匹配和解释构建。本文使用编码来揭示主题和模式匹配/跨案例比较以促进解释构建。

发现

该文件强调了很少使用正式的国际销售/分销合同、缺乏关于合同的知识、合同形成的障碍、对法院系统和诉讼的疑虑以及代理合同的采用。本文描述了各种合同实践，即无正式合同、即兴的、规范的和正式的合同安排，并强调了每种方法适用的背景。

研究限制/影响

与该领域的大多数研究类似，对承包实践的剖析源自二元组的出口商方面。这剥夺了对交易所整体观点的研究。尽管如此，本文有助于更好地理解合同的形成和正式化，以及环境在塑造出口中小企业活动中的作用。

实际影响

尽管正式合同很重要，但并非所有交易所都具有强制性。对于关系历史相对较短的高强度出口商而言，合同更为重要，在主要是非关系文化中销售知识密集型产品。政策制定者应强调合同在这种情况下的重要性，并引导中小企业使用一些免费的跨境合同资源。

社会影响

该研究将公平/公平和诉诸司法视为影响出口中小企业承包做法的相关结构性劣势。

原创性/价值

据作者所知，本文是最早深入描述出口中小企业的承包做法、详细说明非合同承包做法的普遍性以及将承包描述为细致入微和与环境相关的研究之一。