Does managerial ability contribute to export product quality upgrading? Evidence from China

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the impact of managerial ability on the quality of exported products. Consistent with our theoretical findings, our empirical results indicate that managerial ability positively affects export product quality. This finding is robust to alternative model specifications. Productivity is the main channel through which managerial ability drives export product quality upgrades. Additionally, the quality-driven effect of managerial ability is significant only for the largest and non-state-owned enterprises. Improvement in the institutional environment quality strengthens the quality-driven effect of managerial ability.

KEYWORDS:

• Managerial ability
• export product quality
• productivity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For example, Hu et al. (2021) studied the impact of exchange rate on export quality. Zhang et al. (2021) focused on the influence of trade liberation on product quality. Fan et al. (2018) emphasized the effect of productivity on export product quality. Song et al. (2021) examined how institutional environment influences export product quality.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Zhejiang Provincial Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project [22NDJC015Z], Major Humanities and Social Sciences Research Projects in Zhejiang higher education institutions [2023QN093], and Zhejiang Provincial Education general Project [Y202250353].