A critical examination of the direct and indirect effects of government policies on export promotion on the export performance of small and medium size (SME) cocoa exporters in Cameroon.

摘要

The research examines the effectiveness of the Cameroonian government policies for export promotion on export performance of SMEs in Cocoa production in the South West and Centre Regions of the Cameroon which are the major production centres. The theoretical contribution of the research is divided into two parts. The first consists of the robustness of existing theory using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model. The second constructs a structural equation model (SEM) based on the testing of the CFA model to test the effectiveness of government policies for export promotion on export performance. 101 questionnaires were collected through snowball sampling and analysed using SEM. The findings on the robustness of existing theories (resource-based view) are that government policies represent an external resource that enables SMEs to overcome the barriers to exporting and improve export performance through the provision country and firms specific advantages. The findings on SEM are that government policies have positive effects on export performance both directly and indirectly through Country and firms specific advantages. However, the positive and significant effects were through the provision of export marketing information. As a result of the analysis, normative policy recommendations are made on the government to improving access and usage of these policies and for SMEs to make concerted efforts in accessing information. The discussion of the reliability and validity of the research, its limitations, and implications for future studies, the theoretical underpinnings of the CFA and SEM models are carefully examined.