A Study of The Impact of The Quality of The Relationship between Exporting Firms and Foreign Buyers on The Firm Export Performance (Case Study: Exporting Manufacturing Firms in Gilan Province)

Today, the relationship between export activities and performance has become a highly important issue in the development and implementation of strategies and also the international trade arena for firms. One of the major instruments that measure the export performance is consideration of strategic results of exports. In this view, achievement of strategic goals including: improvement of the competitive status and increase of the market share must be taken into account as an important part of export performance. Furthermore, one of the factors that affect the firm export performance is the relationship between the firms and foreign customers and meanwhile the issue of the quality of communications has a highly important status as it determines the intensity and strength of a relationship. The dimensions of the quality of communications include: information sharing, long-term relationships and satisfaction with communication. This study is aimed at investigating the impact of the quality of relationships with customers on the firm export performance. The population of this study is the staff and managers of exporting manufacturing firms of Gilan Province, which consists of 800 individuals, and a sample of 200 individuals has been selected from among them for distribution of the questionnaire. The sampling method is random sampling. The method of the present study is descriptive-analytic. The method of data collection is field studies and the instrument for data collection is the questionnaire. Data analysis is also conducted in the two descriptive and inferential methods. Hypothesis testing has been conducted through the regression testing method and by means of SPSS18 software. The results of the studies conducted show that the quality of the relationships with customers has had a great impact on the export performance of exporting manufacturing firms of Gilan Province, and from among the dimensions of the quality of communications, the variable of satisfaction with communication has the most impact on the export performance.