An international marketing strategy and export performance among Malaysian exporters

The study aimed at investigating the impact of the antecedent factors on the performance
of exporting companies in Malaysia through the mediating influence of marketing mix adaptation. In order to provide deep and rich investigation, the impact of the antecedent
factors on the marketing mix adaptation was examined. A questionnaire was used as the
instrument of the study and the data collection procedures included self-administered
questionnaires and emailed ones. The questionnaires were sent to 780 firms and 401
valid questionnaires were returned making the response rate 51.4%. Data collected were
analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for the purposes of descriptive statistics on the demographic characteristics of the subjects and exploratory factor analysis, while Partial Least Square (PLS) was used to determine the interactions between the various constructs for ascertaining the various structured equation models. The findings generated from the present study were then reported and detailed discussion about them was presented in the line of the available literature. For the relationship between the antecedent factors and the export performance through the mediating influence of the marketing mix, the findings revealed that the marketing mix does mediate this link in some factors while it does not in other factors. Furthermore, it was reported that 3 out of four marketing mix strategies have a significant impact on the export performance of Malaysian exporting firms. The findings also revealed that some of the antecedent factors have a significant impact on the marketing mix adaptation strategies while others seem not to have this significant impact. The study concluded with some recommendations that can be of a great use to the Malaysian exporting firms
while making decisions about their exporting activities.