E-commerce and export behavior: Evidence from Jiangxi firms

The adoption of Internet-based B2B e-commerce applications is being promoted in the developing world as a systemic innovation which offers producer firms new exchange mechanisms that enable them to compete on a more equal basis in world markets. This paper studies how e-commerce affects export. Due to rapid growth of export and e-commerce in Jiangxi province, Jiangxi export firms were investigated mainly by questionnaire. Entrepreneurial characteristics, historical data of firms, and other firm-specific factors such as the size of operation, export intensity, investment level and wage rates were included in the analysis. The findings of the study suggest that the performance of firms in international markets has been better for those that have adopted more advanced e-business tools.