ABSTRACT
The ongoing process of globalisation has dramatically reduced economic distances between the single local economies and the global market. Eventually, this creates opportunities and threats for firms involved in this process. On the one hand, firms are exposed to competition of foreign firms that, through exports, foreign direct investments and other contractual forms of internationalisation compete in local markets. This has obvious negative implications for local firms that are likely to face smaller demand and reduced margins, but can also foster a process of technology transfer from international firms (Coe and Helpman 1995; Unctad 1999). On the other hand, globalisation opens new opportunities for foreign expansion, since internationalisation becomes easier and sometimes even a necessary step to sustain firms’ competitiveness. This chapter will focus on this latter point. In particular, I will address the following question: ‘Do firms learn from their exporting experience?’ I will discuss to what extent export behaviour improves firms’ productivity trajectories and perform an empirical test, using data from a large sample of Italian manufacturing firms. Special attention will be devoted to the role of firm size. In fact, it will be argued that learning from exporting experiences might require appropriate organisational structures and capabilities that smaller firms lack. It is therefore crucial to study whether larger firms are indeed more likely to exhibit productivity gains as a result of their export behaviour.
