Perceptions of international trade barriers: Empirical study of small apparel firms

Perceptions of international trade barriers are important in the decision of firms to export.This study makes an empirical analysis of the perceptions with respect a particular sector. Two industrial hubs (locations) were chosen. The perceptions of the firms were very different in the two locations (in the same geographical region of the country). In one of these, lack of knowledge (in particular, lack of staff for export planning) was found to be the most important barrier as perceived by the firms, while competition was found as the most important barrier in the other. We also found further clusters within each of the two industrial ‘clusters’. It is not just the firms which can be associated with some stages of internationalization but the clusters can also be in different evolutionary stages of internationalization, in view of the differences. Policy makers may note these and focus their export promotion and information dissemination plans based on cluster membership so as to improve perceptions.