Impact of Business Association Services and Training Programs on Export Performance

Sophie Brown analyzes the impact of the Bangladesh IT association (BASIS) on firm export performance, using unique cross-sectional data from the Bangladesh Evaluation Survey 2016. She aims to build on existing literature and provides empirical insight into the effect of an export association in a developing country in the IT and ITES sector. The hypotheses that BASIS services and training programs positively impact firm export performance, defined as export propensity and export share, are empirically tested using the propensity score matching method. The results show a positive link between BASIS and firm export performance. The services, such as financial services seem to favor an expansion of firms’ export share while training programs, such as the marketing and technical training are associated with an increase of export propensity.