Common Factors Underlying Incentive to Export: Studies in the European Forest Products Industry

This article identifies a comprehensive set of factors that cluster the beliefs of European forest products managers about the importance of incentives to export. Each of the identified factors has received some attention in the theoretical literature concerning international business activity. The ten factors of belief that were identified, however, are not equally salient in those discussions. The revealed incentive factors underscore the importance of the life‐cycle concept, with respect to the product, firm, and industry, to assessing the issue of export initiation. In addition, the results caution for more sharply delineating between strategic versus tactical motivations for understanding the involvement of a firm in export.