A research overview of the trade intermediaries

¹YU Miaojie:Liaoning University

²SHE Kexin:National School of Development,Peking University

Abstract：

The important role played by trade intermediaries in international trade has received more and more attention. This paper reviews recent literature from home and abroad on trade intermediaries, and analyzes them from four aspects: the identification methods of trade intermediaries, the impact mechanisms of trade intermediaries on enterprises' trade behaviors, the empirical results, and the influencing factors in the choice of trade intermediaries by enterprises. Research shows that trade intermediaries can facilitate matching of buyers and sellers, reduce trade costs and provide quality verification. Trade intermediaries provide new export modes for enterprises, and help them export to countries that are smaller in market scale, more distant and require higher trade costs. In general, intermediaries have a positive impact on enterprises' exports, and have an impact on the import of foreign inputs, exports and productivity improvement of enterprises. In terms of influencing factors, enterprises with smaller scales and more diverse export products are more likely to export through trade intermediaries in the face of difficult-to-enter markets. In order to improve the theoretical system and application practice of trade intermediary research, it is necessary to strengthen the research on whether trade intermediaries can effectively deal with the impact of domestic and foreign political and economic uncertainties on import and export, expand the research on the relationship between cross-border e-commerce and traditional trade intermediaries, and develop research on the complementary advantages of enterprises choosing the combination export model to achieve trade intermediary export and direct export.

Keywords：trade intermediary; matching of buyers and sellers; trade cost; quality verification; enterprises' import and export; combination export;