Export relationship marketing orientation: Scale development

The aim of this study is to develop a scale with a holistic approach to the export relationship marketing orientation which has been approved of validity and reliability criteria and covers a hypothetical base of concept and a theoretical basis that helps export firms in developing relationship marketing strategies and practices. The study is authentic due to the absence of a relationship marketing scale specific to export dynamics and international marketing conditions and it offered a scale development method within the scope of general scale development process. Thus, it is proposed that an important gap in the literature will be filled. The research has three main sections, introduction, conclusions and recommendations. While the introduction explains the main motivation of the study, second and third chapters focus on institutional and theoretical background of the research and the fourth chapter covers the methodology of the research and the empirical research findings. Traditional scale development process has been adopted for the research process and consists of three main stages: the creation of the items pool, the development and structuring of the scale and the evaluation of the scale and the creation of the final scale form. To identify the items that will be used in the scale, semi-structured interviews have been conducted as well as literature review. The initially obtained scale items were first subjected to expert opinion in order to test the validity of appearance and content, and then to pilot study to make simplifications. With the simplified scale, the actual application (n = 421) was applied to the exporters according to the quota sampling method and the final research was conducted. vi In the implementation of the study respectively: 1. Determining the number of dimensions with the items related to all factors, 2. Investigation of unidimensionality for each factor, 3. Validation of factor structure and relationships between factors and items, 4. Investigation of the measurement invariance of the measurement tool that randomly divided into two groups, 5. Analysis of the discrimination validity, 6. The study of the reliability of the measurement tool and its sub-dimensions was followed. In conclusions, a measurement tool which measures export-relationship marketing orientation that has validity and reliability, can be retested and expected to obtain similar results is presented. The measurement tool consists of six sub-dimensions and 25 items. These sub-dimensions are: Trust, Communication, Shared Values, Commitment, Business Manners, and Cross-National Relations. Keywords: Scale Development, Export, Export Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Export Relationship Marketing Orientation