Proceedings of 6th Annual American Business Research Conference
9 - 10 June 2014, Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, New York, USA, ISBN: 978-1-922069-52-8
Why Do Some Smes Choose To Export Whilst Others Choose To
Concentrate On The Domestic Market? Evidence from an Emerging
Economy
Damoah Obi Berko O.
It is identified that Ghanaian SMEs barely export and so the objective of this study is to find out why of
the population of SMEs from Ghana hardly any export manufacturing outputs whilst the remaining
majority of others remained concentrated on the domestic market. It is not understood why the
manufacturing export involvement of SMEs across the world over have flourished whilst that of
Ghanaian SMEs are being lagged behind. To address this challenge, the study draws from a firm level
data set based on the World Bank’s survey on manufacturing enterprises in Ghana, namely the Regional
Programme on Enterprise Development (RPED) based on firm level data set on manufacturing
enterprises from 1992 - 2002. Following from the data set, the paper employs the logistic regression to
identify the variables predicting likelihood of SMEs export participation from Ghana. Based on the logit
model, it is found that SMEs possessing large firm size, those having joint venture ownership as
opposed to those the wholly owned Ghanaian SMEs are the among the variables predicting the
probability of SMEs export participation from Ghana. Based on the findings from the study, implication
for public policy, practice and future research are suggested.
Key words: export, SMEs, Ghana, manufacturing Export
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Dr. Damoah Obi Berko O. Department of Organisation & Human Resource Management, University of Ghana Business
School, Ghana, West Africa. Email:obodamoah@ug.edu.gh/obiberko@gmail.com/obiberko