Innovation and export performance: a meta-analytic review and theoretical integration

Purpose Since an accumulated body of research has examined the link between innovation and export performance and little attention has been paid to consolidate the existent fragmented findings in the pertinent literature, the purpose of this paper is to systematically integrate empirical findings based on a meta-analysis of relevant research investigating the association between innovation and export performance. Design/methodology/approach In this research, correlations within individual studies were examined through performing a meta-analysis, which assists to synthesize the entire findings among past individual studies and helps to quantify the aggregated results. In total, 38 articles surveyed 554,227 exporting manufacturing companies were analyzed through a meta-analysis of 145 total effects. Findings This study demonstrates that innovation is a strategic source to achieve competitive advantage with intent to achieve superior performance in export markets. In this sense, the results reveal that while there is a significant relationship between innovation activities of companies and their export performance, export strategic performance dimension captures important facets in this relationship. Moreover, the results indicate that conceptualization of innovation and the development level of countries moderate the link between innovation and export performance. While output-oriented innovation is more influential on innovation-financial export performance association, the input-oriented innovation is more influential on strategic and market performance. Originality/value This present study attempted to synthesize fragmented results examining innovation–export performance link via revealing potential moderators on the association between innovation and export performance and providing important insights for both practitioners and scholars.