Investigating the effective factors on the export performance of small and medium companies with the mediation of Competitive advantages and comprehensive quality management

In today's business environment, which is accompanied by increasing competition in global markets, international strategies are becoming more important, and exporting is known as the most common way for companies to enter global markets. Today, companies are trying to prosper by improving their export performance. Considering this importance, in this research, the key drivers of the export performance of small and medium-sized companies have been investigated. Specifically, the purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of absorptive capacity, intangible resources and entrepreneurial orientation on the export performance of small and medium-sized companies through the mediation of competitive advantages and comprehensive quality management. This research is practical in terms of purpose and analytical-descriptive in terms of methodology. The community under investigation is small and medium-sized companies active in the field of food industry located in Tehran, and the questionnaire was distributed among the managers and experts of these companies. Finally, 250 practical questionnaires have been collected, and the value of Cronbach's alpha and the combined reliability of all variables have been obtained in order to check the reliability of the measuring tool above 0.7. The analysis of the collected data was done by structural equation modeling method and using SmartPLS software. After the statistical analysis, it was found that the drivers of export performance, including intangible resources, absorption capacity and entrepreneurial orientation, have a positive and significant effect on the export performance of small and medium-sized companies. It was also found that intangible resources, absorptive capacity and entrepreneurial orientation have a positive and significant effect on competitive advantage and comprehensive quality management. Also, the mediating effect of total quality management on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and export performance was confirmed. According to the obtained results, all research hypotheses are confirmed. Therefore, considering the importance of export, it can be concluded that any action to improve each of these drivers will lead to an increase in the company's export performance.