An inquiry into new exporters

the case of Slovenia

We examine the characteristics of successful new exporters using a panel of

Slovenian manufacturing firms in the period 1994-2010. The focus of the

monograph is to identify the most important determinants of successful

export performance after the start of exporting. We identify and

characterize successful new exporters that increase their geographical

presence and exhibit healthy export growth in the periods after the

beginning of exporting. These firms are compared with unsuccessful new

exporters in order to give us information on the critical characteristics that

drive the survival and growth of new exporters in their first few years of

exporting. We also examine export-strategy related factors that can be

traced out of the available trade data: how many markets do successful

new exporters begin with, how fast do they grow on the extensive margin

(adding new export markets), what is their export growth on existing

markets, what kind of geographical sequencing they choose on average,

how many distinct export products they begin with, what is the growth of

the range of products over time, how concentrated are their exports across

markets and across product categories, what is their import pattern in

terms of geographical spread and product variety, and last but not least,

how do all these strategies differ from the failed new exporters.