3. Method
3.1. Sample and data analyses
The basis of this research is an empirical study of Spanish export firms. A multi-industry sample enlarges the observed variance and makes findings more extensible (Morgan et al., 2004). The sample of firms comes from the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX) exporter database. Maintaining sectorial proportionality, 1200 export managers received questionnaires, mainly via e-mail. Respondents returned 212 valid questionnaires—response rate of 17.7%, which is within the acceptable range of 15% to 20% (Menon, Bharadwaj, & Howell, 1996).
More than half of these firms are small (66% have fewer than 50 employees) and the majority have specialist export managers (81%), though only a third have export departments (33%). Most firms have great experience in international business (61% have more than 15 years of export activity) and concentrate export sales in a small number of markets (71% export to five countries or fewer).