Factors affecting the timing of the export development process: Does the family influence on the business make a difference?

Abstract

In this paper, we study the export development process of Spanish manufacturing firms focusing on the question of whether the family nature of the business influences the speed of this process in terms of entry age into the different phases, implying a higher involvement with exporting activities. Data are taken from the Spanish 'Survey on Business Strategies' (SBS) that comprises 1,524 useful observations for our research. Event history analysis is applied to the data set. Results show that, controlling for other influences traditionally associated to the speed of the export development process, the family nature of the business is related to a later entry into the more advanced phase of this process