(MclIvor, 2009). Kathuria (2000) finds that different groups of manufacturers put an emphasis on different sets of competitive priorities and, in turn, perform differently. Bustinza et al. (2010) find that a firm’s competitive capabilities have a positive impact on its market share and sales growth. Guan and Ma (2003) find that reliable delivery and short lead-time are positively related to a firm’s export performance. Thus, we formulate our final hypothesis: Hypothesis 2. Exporters’ strategic orientation towards 3PL pro- viders has a positive relationship with 3PL providers’ augmented capability. Sample profile. * See the appendix for the survey questions of the measurement items. Exploratory factor analysis of the constructs. Estimations of the measurement model parameters in Fig. 2. Discriminant validity: chi-square differences between constrained and unconstrained models. All chi-square differences are different at the 0.05 level. Fit measures of the overall model. export performance. The results of the mediation analyses are presented in Table 9. Table 8 Summary of statistical tests of the hypotheses in Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Alternative model. Fig. 2. Hypothesized model and its path estimates. Test of hypothesized mediation effects (N=150). Table 9 improve exporters’ export performance. This is consistent with Bustinza et al.’s (2010) model. The findings demonstrate the mediation effects (to some extent) of 3PL providers’ augmented capability and exporters’ competitive advantage on this relationship. A prior study states that 50% of the articles that attempted to test the RBV theory provided insignificant support for the theory. Many of them focus only on the characteristics of the resources, not the exploitation of the resources (Newbert, 2007). To fill in this research gap, the present study contributes by providing compelling support for RBV by unveiling the underlying mechanism that forges the relationship between exporters’ strategic orientation towards 3PL providers and export performance. * EP1, EP2, and EP3 are reversely coded. Survey questions and descriptive statistics. Table A1 supported in part by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University under Grant number J-BB7K. emphasis on acquiring and exploiting knowledge, as well as relational and information resources, in order to win contracts and secure continuity of the contracts.
