The Impact of Export Incentive Programs on Export Performance: The Role of the Attractiveness of Foreign Markets and Export Capabilities

The modern business theory addresses international trade and economic growth during the 1990s and focuses on technological progress and its external implications, as well as the use of new knowledge as a clear variable. Export Promotion Programs complete the information and knowledge of managers in the field of exports. The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of export incentive programs on the export performance of international trading companies, directly and indirectly, with the mediator role of the attractiveness of foreign markets and the company's export capabilities. A total of 240 questionnaires of Iranian trading companies were collected by random sampling method. SEM modeling was used to test the hypotheses and analyze the data. The results showed that export incentive programs do not have a direct effect on the export performance of the company and its effect is through the perception of the attractiveness of foreign markets as well as the development of export capabilities of the company on the company's export performance. Also, the results show that the variable of export incentive programs, directly and indirectly, explains 66% of the variations in the export performance, which indicates the importance of export incentive programs to achieve superior export performance. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that programs in the field of encouraging business companies be given more importance to educational issues. Also, corporate executives should note that communication factors are considered as the most important factor in creating the export capability for major companies.