Gathering and using information for the selection of trading partners

Examines the nature of the search process used by international firms in identifying trading partners in emerging markets, and to what extent systematic information collection on potential partners is likely to enhance the choice of satisfactory partners. The results, based on 46 Dutch companies, suggest that only a few companies have formal procedures to find trading partners and that they tend to depend on informal and personal contacts for information. A company’s involvement in export/import activities and entry strategy was found to have a positive influence on the actual selection of satisfactory partners. This was also true for formalization of the search process, company size, a more extensive partner‐evaluation and prior research experience with finding trading partners. Proactiveness/breadth of search was not found to have a significant positive effect, and depth of search even happened to be negatively correlated with successful partner selection. Finally, the results did not support modeling searching for importing and exporting relationships separately.