Export Emergence in Differentiated Goods from Developing Countries: Export Pioneers and Business Practices in Argentina

ALEJANDRO ARTOPOULOS; DANIEL FRIEL; JUAN CARLOS HALLAK

Santiago

Seminario; Seminario Centro de Economía Aplicada; 2013

Universidad de Chile

This article describes four case studies of export emergence of differentiated good sectors from Argentina, namely wine, television programs, motorboats, and wooden furniture. These case studies rely primarily on an extensive set of interviews. Based on these cases we develop a theoretical framework to explain the emergence of sectors in developing countries that are successfully able to export differentiated goods to developed countries. We find that consistent exporters to these countries adopt a new set of business practices designed to meet their specific demands. In three of the sectors, the adoption of these practices is led by an export pioneer characterized by the possession of tacit knowledge about foreign markets. The export pioneers in our cases achieved such knowledge through their previous embeddedness in those markets. Knowledge about foreign markets is subsequently diffused to other firms in the sector generating a process of export emergence.