Strategies for Innate and Adoptive Exporters: Lessons from Israel′s Case

This article contrasts corporations established expressly to serve foreign markets (innate exporters) with those that first served domestic markets and later broadened their scope to foreign markets (adoptive exporters). It examines their respective reasons for export involvement, managerial attitudes and practices, risk profiles,strategic postures in four competitive scenarios, and key distinctive success factors. Issues raised in this article are examined from the perspective of Israel. Its conclusions proposing strategic recommendations to exploit further the potential of innate exporters,however, extend to other environments.