Marketing and financial barriers in agri-food exporting

The purpose of this paper is to empirically research marketing and financial export barriers by perceptions of agri-food firms from small developing country with preferential trade position in Europe. Using resource-based and contingency theories as framework, differences in barriers perceptions between exporters classified by five organizational factors were tested.

Secondary data collection for literature review, conceptualization and hypotheses setting, and primary data collection for hypotheses testing were employed. Survey’s variables and their measurement were derived from previous studies, so exploratory factor analysis was utilized to test dimensionality. A total of 224 agri-food exporters were surveyed and 86 usable responses were collected. The single export venture was used as unit of analysis. ANOVA and t test were utilized for hypotheses testing.

Results indicate that the biggest barriers are price competitiveness and insufficient government support. Larger firms and foreign-owned ones perceive researched export barriers as lower than smaller firms and domestic-owned ones.

The primary limitation of the paper is its one country scope, limiting generalizability. Despite this, research derives several implications especially for management and policy-makers.

This research confirmed propositions of resource-based and contingency theory in export barriers researching in a case of agri-food sector of small, developing economy with preferential position in European trade, but challenges treating export experience, intensity, and product type as firm’s valuable resources and internal contingencies.