Relative institutional maturity of export markets and export performance: The moderating roles of managerial capabilities and export intensity

Piotr Trąpczyński; Tilo Halaszovich

doi:10.18559/ebr.2026.2.2403

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Relative institutional maturity of export markets and export performance: The moderating roles of managerial capabilities and export intensity

Economics and Business Review

Volume 12 (2026): Issue 2 (June 2026)

By: Piotr Trąpczyński and Tilo Halaszovich

Open Access

|Jun 2026

Abstract

This study combines institutional theory with the capability perspective to investigate how the institutional characteristics of export markets served by firms from a post-transition economy affect their export performance. We analyse a dataset of 500 exporting firms from Poland, a post-transition economy, by using regression analyses. This research aims to explore how the relative institutional maturity of a firm’s export markets affects performance, as well as to establish the moderating role of managerial capabilities and export intensity for this performance effect. Relative institutional maturity is negatively associated with export performance only for exporters characterised by both low managerial capabilities and low export intensity. For firms with greater export exposure, this negative effect disappears, suggesting that accumulated international involvement may partly offset the challenges of operating in more institutionally mature markets.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18559/ebr.2026.2.2403 | Journal eISSN: 2450-0097 | Journal ISSN: 2392-1641

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Language: English

Page range: 43 - 70

Submitted on: Jun 19, 2025

Accepted on: Jun 4, 2026

Published on: Jun 30, 2026

Published by: Poznań University of Economics and Business Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

relative institutional maturity,

managerial capabilities,

export intensity,

export performance,

post-transition economies

Related subjects:

Business and economics,

Political economics,

Political economics, other,

Business and economics,

Mathematics and statistics for economists,

Econometrics,

Business and economics,

Finance

© 2026 Piotr Trąpczyński, Tilo Halaszovich, published by Poznań University of Economics and Business Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 12 (2026): Issue 2 (June 2026)