Export Market Survival of Pioneers and Followers

This study investigates empirically whether export pioneers and followers are different in terms of export market survival, utilising a rich plant-product-level dataset on Korean manufacturing industries for 1991–1997. We find that export pioneers that bring new products to the export market are less likely to survive than export followers of the existing export products. We also find that there is some heterogeneity in the export survival probability after new export entry, even amongst export pioneers and followers. Amongst export followers, the followers of the existing products show higher survival rates than those of the export-pioneered products. Amongst export pioneers, those that introduce a new product to both domestic and export markets simultaneously for the first time in the economy exhibit higher survival than export pioneers that take an existing domestic product to the export market.

Export Market Survival of Pioneers and Followers