South Carolina Cases Cite Barriers To Exporting;
More Research Needed
Small business owners may not have the time and money to invest in overcoming barriers to exporting, suggests a study released at the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce Business Summit. The study closely examined barriers to exporting faced by a panel of South Carolina small businesses.
"This study shows that small businesses may face significant barriers to exporting," said Dr. Chad Moutray, Chief Economist for the Office of Advocacy. "More research is needed to identify the barriers to overcome, and how American small businesses can better compete in the global marketplace."
A key finding is that the firms studied generally initiated exporting in reaction to customer inquiries, not as a planned strategy. A more proactive stance, while possibly increasing export revenues, was seen as too costly and time consuming for most of the firms.
Palmetto Consulting wrote Costs of Developing a Foreign Market for a Small Business: The Market & Non-Market Barriers to Exporting by Small Firms with funding from the Office of Advocacy. The report explores in-depth the market and non- market barriers to exporting experienced by a wide range of small businesses in South Carolina.
The Office of Advocacy, the "small business watchdog" of the government, examines the role and status of small business in the economy and independently represents the views of small business to federal agencies, Congress, and the President. It is the source for small business statistics presented in user-friendly formats and it funds research into small business issues. For more information, visit the Office of Advocacy website at www.sba.gov/advo.