Learning-by-Exporting? Firm-Level Evidence for UK Manufacturing and Services Sectors

exporters has been recently surveyed by Greenaway and Kneller (2005) and Wagner
(2005). In more than 30 studies reviewed in Greenaway and Kneller (op. cit.),
covering a wide range of countries, ‘self-selection’ is universally found to be
important. ⁸ Nevertheless, there are still some studies which find exporters are not
more efficient than non-exporters: for instance, Bleaney and Wakelin (2002) with
regard to UK manufacturing when controlling for innovating activity; Greenaway et.
al. (2005) for Swedish manufacturers with a relatively high level of international
exposure on average; and Damijan et. al. (2005) on firms in Slovenia where higher
productivity is required only in those that export to advanced countries but not those
who export to developing nations.

In addition, export-oriented firms are also assumed to experience an acceleration in
productivity growth following entry, under the learning-by-exporting hypothesis. This
proposition has received somewhat less support in the literature. Many early empirical
studies raise doubts about the causality running from exporting to productivity, since
they fail to find gains in productivity growth post entry, notwithstanding that
exporting firms on average experience significantly higher growth in terms of
employment and wages (Aw and Hwang, 1995; Bernard and Wagner, 1997; Bernard
and Jensen, 1999; Delgado et. al., 2002).

Nevertheless, much of the literature on international entrepreneurship emphasizes the
importance of exporting as a learning process, consistent with the notion of absorptive
capacity and the resource-based view of the firm (Cohen and Levinthal, 1989, 1990;
Barney, 1991; Teece et. al., 1997). The process of going international is perceived as
a sequence of stages in the firm’s growth trajectory, which involves substantial

⁸ See Aw and Hwang (1995) for Taiwan; Bernard and Wagner (1997) for Germany; Clerides et. al.
(1998) for Colombia; Mexico and Morocco; Bernard and Jensen (1999) for the US; Kraay (1999) for
China; Alvarez (2001) for Chile; Castellani (2002) for Italy; Delgado et. al. (2002) for Spain; and
Greenaway and Kneller (2004) for the UK.

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