The effect of cultural distance and cultural intelligence onexport performance through relationship quality

Cultural distance and cultural intelligence have been significant for the globally operating companies and they should be considered especially in recent years. There are many studies in cultural distance; however it has not been studied the effects of cultural distance together with cultural intelligence so far. These terms have obviously some effects on the relationship between importer and exporter. Furthermore, relationship quality has an importance for exporters to provide long term and sustainable communication; and also it evaluates the effects of them to export performance. It has been examined the effect of cultural distance and cultural intelligence on export performance through relationship quality on the companies who operate in marble/natural stone sector in this study. The data was gathered from the managers in export companies who participated "24th İzmir International Natural Stone and Technologies Fair". Findings indicate that cultural intelligence has not much significant effect on cultural distance; on the other hand, cultural distance has statistically significant effect on relationship quality. Moreover, the effect of cultural intelligence on relationship quality and the effect of relationship quality on export performance have been found statistically significant. Furthermore, as the education level and foreign language of managers increases, cultural intelligence rises; however, these demographic variables have no effect on cultural distance. Additionally, it has been concluded that gender and age have not significant effect on cultural distance and cultural intelligence. Keywords: Cultural distance, cultural intelligence, relationship quality, export performance