Firm Internal Factors and Export Performance in the Ghanaian Wood Industry
Fidelis Quansah, Alhassan Bunyaminu

Abstract
The objective of this study is to investigate the factors that are important in the determination of export performance in the Ghanaian wood industry. The study employed a convenience sampling technique to identify the respondents. Accordingly, the purposive sampling method was used to choose respondents that have similar characteristics. A correlation analysis between the number of employees working in the firm and the number of employees with technical background working in the firm was conducted. To estimate the relationship between the firm internal factors and export performance within the wood export industry of Ghana, the study went on to regress the remaining internal firm characteristics as independent variables against the dependent variable which is export performance. The results of the correlation analysis indicated that all the variables except years of exporting and number of employees with technical background were significantly correlated to export performance. The age of the firm and the numbers of employees working for the firm were however negatively correlated to export performance. It also indicated that the variables contributed a minimum to 2% and a maximum of 16.6% to the variance in export performance. The study recommends that more factors should be explored in the literature to uncover more factors that are important in the determination of export performance in the Ghanaian wood industry.

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