Experiential and Informational Knowledge, Architectural Marketing Capabilities, and the Adaptive Performance of Export Ventures: A Cross-National Study

To develop a hypothetical model concerning relationships involving these elements of our export venture knowledge management framework, and to help operationalize key constructs, we synthesized our previous literature-based insights with exploratory interviews with managers involved with export ventures. Our rieldwork involved 17 interviews with marketing managers, international business development managers, CEOs, and account development managers in different firms from a cross-section of industries. The 17 managers interviewed had responsibility for 29 export ventures. The interviews were conducted using an open-ended format and typically lasted between 1.5 and 2 hours.

Supporting our export venture knowledge management framework, our interviews indicated that the knowledge base of export ventures comprises both experiential and informational knowledge. Our fieldwork indicated that experiential knowledge of both the exporting process and the specific market targeted by the venture is valuable because it enables managers to better understand the particular requirements of channel members and customers in the export market (e.g., Lord & Ranft, 2000; Peng & York, 2001). Managers also highlighted the importance of informational knowledge concerning customers, competitors, channels, and the broader environment in the export venture's target market as being a valuable component of the venture's knowledge base. Our fieldwork interviews indicated that experience relevant to the export market and the accomplishment of exporting tasks is also viewed by managers as an important export venture knowledge resource at both the individual and organizational levels. Interestingly, however, because of the relatively small number of personnel in most export ventures, along with the central importance of knowledge concerning the target export market in venture decision making, managers indicated that transferring market information from the individual to the export venture level was usually quickly and easily achieved. Our fieldwork therefore suggested that informational knowledge at the individual level was not a particularly important element in explaining the relationship between an export venture's knowledge base and its performance.

From an organizational capability perspective, the fieldwork interviews supported the exporting literature in indicating that since export ventures are fundamentally marketing-based business units, marketing capabilities are important in determining the venture's ability to adapt to the requirements of its target export market. Our fieldwork revealed that the architectural capabilities of marketing planning and implementation are seen as being particularly important (cf. Henderson & Clark, 1990). Managers viewed the export venture's marketing planning capability as concerning the processes used to orchestrate the integration of the venture's specialized marketing capabilities (such as product development, advertising, channel management, etc.), and the combinations of resources (e.g., brand equity, channel relationships, etc.) they are designed to leverage, in ways that optimize venture goal achievement (e.g., Day, 1994; Moller & Anttila, 1987). Consistent with the marketing literature, our fieldwork revealed that managers viewed the export venture's marketing implementation capability as concerning the routines by which export ventures transform intended export marketing strategy into realized actions and resource deployments (e.g., Bonoma, 1985; Noble & Mokwa, 1999).