Overview
Trading across borders, export intermediaries are specialized service firms that connect domestic manufacturers with overseas buyers. How do they do it? What determines their success or failure? Have they really lowered transaction costs for their clients, minimized agency costs, and possessed competitive resources and capabilities in world trade? Surprisingly, no study until now has answered these questions or has explored the underlying issues as thoroughly as Peng does here.
Peng develops an integrated model of export intermediary performance. He focuses on the nature of export transactions and manufacturer-intermediary relationships which may lead to agency problems, and underlines the importance of valuable, unique, and hard-to-imitate resources and capabilities for intermediaries' competitive advantages. Peng employs a distinct analytical approach that highlights three underlying themes—transactions, agents, and resources—then tests his model with six critical case studies and a 1,000-firm mail survey. Operators of export intermediaries seeking ways to improve their performance, aspiring entrepreneurs studying the export business for niche opportunities, manufacturing executives seeking top quality service from export intermediaries, and government officials in charge of export promotion and pertinent legislation—all will find Peng's book a useful examination of issues critical to their work.
Synopsis
How well have U.S. export intermediaries been doing, and how have their clients benefitted are the crucial questions explored in this unique study of an important resource in world trade.
Booknews
Arguing that exports are crucial to the U.S. economy and that export intermediaries play a key role in facilitating exports, the author applies strategic, economic, and organizational theories to the investigation of the fundamental determinants of small-firm export intermediary performance. Focusing in the nature of export transactions and manufacture intermediary-relationships, he develops an analytical model for determining success and then uses data from six case studies and a 1,000 firm mail survey to evaluate the success of the model. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.