Evaluating export performance barriers: a pairwise comparison of grand challenges in Ghana and Nigeria

While export performance barriers are somewhat understood, the unique gravity of their ‘grand challenge’ has eluded the literature, to the extent that neither firms nor institutions understand the relative importance of internationalization barriers. To tackle this inertia, this study is premised on identifying and comparing the weights of the most prevalent grand challenges encumbering export performance in two emerging countries. For external validity, a panel of 28 export practitioners and international business scholars was approached to screen a longlist of barriers for the most pertinent criteria in Ghana and Nigeria. Accordingly, a shortlist of 10 grand challenges was validated. An analytic hierarchy process enacted by pairwise comparison was employed to determine, in order of consistency, currency volatility and corruption as the weightiest grand challenges hindering export performance in both contexts. Theoretically, scholars’ attention is drawn to the value of pairwise logic for determining the relative influence of causal criteria when investigating complex phenomena. For policymakers, unequivocal insights are offered for the efficient allocation of public resources towards accosting the most rather than the least incapacitating export barriers.