ABSTRACT
The service sector becomes more and more important in Germany 2 and services are considered as an engine of growth (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2009). This holds true especially for international trade: in 2010 Germany was the second largest exporter of commercial services after the United States (World Trade Organization, 2011, Appendix Table 2). Reliable information on the characteristics of exporting and non-exporting firms is important to guide theorists and policy makers in an evidence-based way. How do these exporting firms differ from firms that sell their services on the national market only? What makes a successful exporter? Are there easily observable characteristics of a firm that are closely related to success on international markets? If this is the case, policy measures might be designed that either target firms with these characteristics to foster export activities, or that help firms that do not yet have these characteristics to build them up and to become the successful exporters of the future. If there are no such characteristics, this casts doubts on the adequacy of specially targeted export promotion programmes with a focus on selected groups of firms.
