Managerial and learning skills in exporting SMEs

The relevance of the perception of exports in the field of business management can have a key impact on the exporting behavior of SMEs. In particular, it can determine the decision to implement an export policy, as well as the policies applied to consolidate exports. This paper covers two main aspects. First, the extent to which managerial perceptions of exports affect the decision to export, and second, for these SMEs which are already exporters, we study the managerial perceptions that can help to consolidate their commitment to exports. To this aim, some scales based on structural equations to measure the perception of the advantages and disadvantages of exporting are developed and validated. Both analyses are carried out considering whether the SMEs involved are family businesses or not, so that the results obtained can also explain the potential impact of this fact.