Managerial Implications
It is now generally accepted that when a company has to face those new situations which are associated with heightened levels of risk, then the various techniques of marketing research should be used as a way of combating the inherent possibilities of failure. The results of the sample questioned for this article suggest that while the majority of respondents agree with the above statement, few actually back their reported behaviour with the appropriate marketing research actions. Although a majority of information types were said to be important for exporting by the respondents (with mean scores greater than 3) the information is collected from a fairly restricted number of sources, including: current customers, distributors and agents and exhibitions. Though, in fairness, it should be pointed out that while such activities are said to be carried out, they may not be viewed as constituting formal marketing research, they do deliver market awareness, understanding and knowledge. Both the extent of market research activity and the spread of export operations are positively related to the size of the firm.