At the individual venture level, we are unable to control for the relative importance of the venture to the company. An obvious indicator would be the relative economic value of the examined venture compared to other ventures in the exporting manufacturer's portfolio. While prima facie there are aspirations of high performance eventuallyassociated with all ventures developed and maintained by an internationally involvedfirm, it is possible that behind the formally set objectives there are other, longer term, more strategic ones. These could be,for example, merely establishing presence in a market with future potential for exploitation at a later stage, or maintaining the venture toavoid (or postpone) a costly exit.