Title: The influences of leadership style and market orientation on export performance: an empirical study of small and medium enterprises in Taiwan

Authors: Les Tien-Shang Lee

Addresses: Department of International Trade, Kun Shan University, 949 Da-Wan Road, Yung-Kang City, Tainan Hsien 710, Taiwan

Abstract: This paper examines the influence of leadership style, organisational structure, and market orientation upon export performance in order to provide suggestions for Taiwan|s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to improve their export performance by adjusting and adopting controllable, external, and internal factors. The empirical findings from 132 Taiwan|s SMEs suggest that: (1) when instrumental leadership style is adopted, organisational structures exhibit higher formalisation, centralisation, and departmentalization; when supportive or participative leadership style is adopted, organisational structure exhibits lower formalisation, centralisation, and departmentalization; (2) leadership style, organisational structure, and market orientation all have impacts on export performance.

Keywords: leadership style; market orientation; organisational structure; export performance; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; Taiwan.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2008.020558

International Journal of Technology Management, 2008 Vol.43 No.4, pp.404 - 424

Published online: 30 Sep 2008 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article