Firm Performance and Business Models Based on Exports: Can This Shy Flirtation Become a True Love Story?

Abstract

[Abstract] This chapter aims to contrast if internationalization is a key element to explain the performance of a company, especially focusing on small and medium-size entreprises (SMEs), and to identify if a business model (BM) based on exports leads to more successful companies. There is a broad theoretical body and a representative set of methodological approaches in this area of knowledge; however, the conclusions reached are very different and in many cases hardly comparable, being limited to a specific temporal and geographical scope. For the purpose of giving a step further in the investigation of BM based on exports, the SMEs from the Autonomous Community of Galicia (Spain) are analyzed through an exploratory research over the 2002-2013 period. The empirical analysis takes into account a range of firm variables linked to both firm management and fixed factors, such as the type of sector, the location, and the economic situation.