The mother of innovation? A comparative analysis of export modes in both developed and emerging economies

Drawing on the knowledge-based view and organizational learning theories, this study explores two closely interconnected issues overlooked by most prior research, namely how the export and entry modes (direct versus indirect export) used in destination markets (developed versus emerging) influence firms’ innovation outcomes. Exploring these issues helps in understanding how different market contexts and entry modes shape innovation outputs. We use a representative sample of Spanish manufacturing firms between 1999 and 2022 to test our hypotheses, and our results reveal that firms exporting to developed markets (the European Union and the OECD) introduce more technological and non-technological innovations. On the other hand, when firms export to emerging markets, the adoption of different types of innovation is not so obvious, suggesting that gains in knowledge and learning in these markets may be more limited. Additionally, our findings consistently indicate that direct exporters introduce more innovations than indirect ones.