Non-market strategy, competitiveness and export performance of Tunisian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Abstract Public interest may threaten businesses and can likely trigger lobbying and pressure movements from interest groups, which may counteract business’s interests. In order to cope, companies strive to develop legitimacy among public institutions through compliance strategies to public policy mechanisms, also called Legitimation strategies. The aim of this article is to examine whether implementing legitimation and lobbying strategies towards governmental institutions offering export promotion programmes could enhance SMEs’ overseas competitiveness and export performance. A survey was conducted and a sample of 74 exporting SMEs was included for the collection of quantitative and qualitative data. The objective of the latter is to explain the relationships between the proposed concepts through the use of PLS-SEM. The data analysis results support the proposition of choosing and implementing certain types of non-market strategies that could lead to better export performance and enhance companies’ overseas competitiveness.