Research in international marketing has long shown that foreign firms face disadvantages when operating abroad from a lack of familiarity with the local institutional environment. To cope with this familiarity, some companies have developed a culture in the ability to understand and take into account the institutional dimensions of the destination market. This article thus aims to explore the institutional orientation of firms and tests its impact on export performance. In Study 1, we develop and validate a 12-item measurement scale divided into four dimensions. In Study 2, we investigate the role of institutional orientation in export performance using a sample of 273 French and Tunisian exporting companies. The results show that this relationship is not direct but is mediated by export commitment.
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