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The prevailing economic crisis (2007-2010) poses a threat to the performance of organizations involving little time to respond and inadequate resources to cope with the situation. The purpose of the study is to explain why organizations doing export operations respond differently during this particular crisis. The author argues that some exporters achieve better results than others by leveraging internal resources, such as their relationships to foreign customers. In particular, strong and trust-based exporter-importer relationships enable smaller firms to overcome times of increased market turbulence and international constraints resulting from their size and financial scarcity (Matanda & Freeman, 2009; Mishra, 1996).

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Daniela Sengstbratl, Mag.rer.soc.oec., studied Business and Economics at the Johannes Kepler University Linz (Austria). She spezialised in International Management and received her degree in 2011.

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