A Survival Analysis of Ghanaian Manufacturing Firms in Export Markets

Recent studies have shown that most developing countries are not able to maintain export relationships for long. According to some researchers, this is one of the key reasons for the poor export performance that many developing countries have experienced over the years. This revelation has necessitated further studies into why export relationships are not sustained for developing countries. Most studies have used firm- and product-level data to analyse the causes of the failure of firms in export markets and have found the survival analysis technique as the most suitable method to use. Ghana is one of the many developing countries that have struggled to improve export performance, especially manufacturing exports. Interestingly, no known study has either investigated the nature of the length of trade relationships for Ghanaian exporting firms or investigated the factors that influence failure of Ghanaian exporters.