The Impacts of Distribution Channel Governance on the Relationship between Market Orientation and Export Performance

Purpose - The objectives of this study are as follows. First, it aims to suggest an analysis model that has integrated the relationship between the two factors and export performance and conduct an empirical analysis of the factors. Second, the study seeks to analyze the mediating effect by setting direct channel governance as a specific activity to connect market orientation, a cultural asset, to export performance. Third, through these analyses, the study intends to apply the relationship between market orientation and direct channel governance that the existing studies have failed to observe comprehensively on SMEs in Korea. Based on these analyses, the study expects to expand the discussion of previous researches by analyzing the mediating effect of direct channel governance. Research design, data, and methodology - This study developed a model that has integrated market orientation, direct channel governance, and export performance. It established 7 hypotheses including the mediating effect of direct channel governance. Market orientation was consisted of customer orientation and competitor orientation, and 4 latent variables were measured by 18 questions. LISREL, an analysis tool of structural equation model, was used for hypothesis test and there were 183 sample for analysis. Results - The analysis results showed that customer orientation has a positive influence on direct channel governance, but competitor orientation did not have a statistically significant effect. On the contrary, export performance showed an opposite result. That is, customer orientation did not have any influence but competitor orientation had a significant influence on export performance. It was also confirmed that there was a significant influence in the relationship between channel governance and export performance. According to the analysis of mediating effect, direct channel governance had a full mediating effect between customer orientation and export performance. Conclusions -