The export mode decision‐making process in small knowledge‐intensive firms

The choice of export mode is a key decision for firms entering foreign markets. The channel management and internationalisation literatures provide rationales for the selection of channel modes but offer little insight into the nature of the decision‐making process itself. There is a paucity of research that answers questions such as how long does it take to make a decision, is a formal plan prepared, and is advice solicited from external sources? This paper reports the results of a disk‐by‐mail survey that collected information on the export mode decisions of Canadian software firms. Managers of the responding firms most frequently reported that they made their decision quickly and by intuition, without the benefit of formal studies or consultation with outside experts. Further, the characteristics of the decision process have no statistically significant association with channel performance. The implications of these results for the theory and practice of export marketing are discussed.