Proactiveness is also related to anticipating and acting on future wants and needs in the market, which

would enable a firm to gain first-mover advantage vis-à-vis the competition (Lumpkin and Dess,

1996). Compared to innovativeness that focuses on creating novel combinations of product and

administrative dimensions, proactiveness focuses more on a firm’s initiative. Proactive organisations

shape their environments by actively seeking and exploiting opportunities (Krueger, 1993).

1.3.3.Risk-Taking

Entrepreneurial orientation has also been conceptualised as a propensity for taking risks. It is a

relatively stable characteristic but can be modified through experience (Leko-Šimi and Horvat, 2006).

It is argued that export related risk-taking distinguishes firms that are willing to commit a large portion

of their resources to untried new export markets from firms that adopt a “wait and see” attitude

towards new export opportunities.

Exporting provides additional revenue to firms which will help them to lower exposure to financial

risks. Owners/managers of firms which have an international vision, favourable perception and

attitudes toward exports, are willing to take risks and have the capacity to engage positively in export

activities likely to lead a company to export success (Abby and Slater, 1989).

1.4.

Internationalisation and Export Performance

Operating effectively in export markets necessitates measuring export performance However, there is

a range of divergent views on what constitutes export performance in the literature (Katsikeas et al.,

2000; Lages and Montgomery, 2004; Ibeh, 2004; Toften, 2005; Shamsuddoha and Ali, 2006; Belso-

Martinez, 2006; Altintas, 2007).

In the literature, two lines of inquiry can be distinguished: the first one investigates performance

consequences from varying degrees of internationalisation while the second one discusses a firm’s

specific differences as decisive factors that might be responsible for differences in the

internationalisation-performance relationship (Lu and Beamish, 2004).

A consensus view suggests that performance is a "multidimensional construct” comprising

effectiveness (meaning the extent to which organisational goals and objectives are achieved),

efficiency (which is the ratio of performance outcomes to the inputs required to achieve them) and

adaptability (the organisation's ability to respond to environmental changes) (Voerman, 2003).

Interest in export performance was activated by the low export performance of many countries that

have the potential to be successful exporters and in the capability of macro-economic studies to clarify

the different export performance of firms within the same industry and same country (Boukersi, 1990,

cited in Boodai, 2001).

1.4.1.Measuring Export Performance – Firm Level

To help measure and improve the firm’s exports a number of important variables can be considered.

They include:

export marketing strategies (e.g. Leonidou, Katsikeas and Samiee, 2002; Cooper and

Kleinschmidt, 1985; Hultman, Robson and Katsikeas, 2009; Katsikeas, Samiee and

Theodosiou, 2006);

export firm characteristics (e.g. Burton and Schlegelmilch, 1987; Cavusgil and Kirpalani,

1993; Katsikeas and Morgan, 1994);

strategic orientations towards export markets (e.g. Cadogan, Kuivalainen and Sundqvist, 2009;

Cadogan, Diamantopoulos and Siguaw, 2002; Rose and Shoham, 2002);