Planning and assessing export promotion activities using large international trade datasets : the evolution of the Decision Support Model, 1995-2025

In this paper we explain and review the Decision Support Model (DSM) methodology, for planning and assessing export promotion activities. This model was first presented in the International Journal of Research in Marketing in 1995 by Cuyvers et al. (1995) and applied to the case of Belgium. We provide the theoretical and empirical basis underlying the DSM and describe how the DSM applied this to export marketing strategy development. When first implemented in 1995, the extent of big data in trade, availability of accessible computing resources and the ease of software solutions constrained the use of the model. We describe how in the extended DSM big data and software can now be better leveraged to provide a user-friendly export marketing dashboard for a variety of export assessment uses. We also compare the extended DSM, with its software driven dashboard, with a comparable tool offered by the International Trade Centre (ITC). In doing so we highlight the DSM's distinct ability to incorporate risk and more realistic transport costs and transit dimensions, and to support innovation in export marketing. We conclude by discussing the limitations of the approach and offering recommendations for future research.