Europe’s Export Superstars – it’s the Organization!
13 May 2015
Yesterday, Professor Dalia Marin presented her recent findings on the organizational strategies of European exporting firms at the wiiw-FIW Seminar in International Economics.
Professor Dalia Marin holds the Chair in International Economics at the University of Munich. In addition, she is research fellow at Bruegel and the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Yesterday, she visited wiiw to present her recent research on the organizational strategies followed by European exporting firms, which she is pursuing jointly with her colleagues Jan Tscheke and Jan Schymik.
The authors of the forthcoming research paper “Europe’s Export Superstars - it’s the Organization!” examined the export business model of the median exporter in seven European countries, as well as of the top 1 % of exporters in each country.
They found, that the export market share of the median exporter in each of the countries to the world have more than tripled (in some cases the export market shares even increased 10 fold) for firms which combine decentralized management with offshoring production to low wage countries.
According to the authors, decentralized management structures provide incentives for workers to pursue product improvements which, in turn, allow exporters to compete on quality. At the same time, offshoring production to low wage countries reduces costs and therefore allow exporters to compete on prices.
Their research furthermore confirmed Germany’s position as the leading quality exporter in Europe, being followed by Austria and Spain. Among the top 10 % percent of exporters, they did not find any single firm with low quality in Germany and Austria.
The series wiiw-FIW Seminars in International Economics is organised in co-operation with FIW, the Research Centre International Economics. The seminar provides a forum for presentation and discussion of recent academic research in the field of international economics.