This study investigates whether the strategies of high performing exporter firms differ from those pursued by low performing firms. Data were obtained from a survey of managers of 60 firms in Tanzania, an underdeveloped country. The study makes three broad contributions to our understanding of export causal relationships: (a) the findings are both at variance and in conformity with existing theory. (b) The findings are different because only a few of the strategy factors are tied significantly to export performance. This is explained in terms of the ‘‘unsettled’’, undeveloped industrial structures and inward looking strategies, all of which seem to reduce the explanatory power of conventional trade theories. (c) The findings are similar in the sense that although many of the strategy variables are not tied significantly to performance, most were nevertheless in the hypothesized direction or could be explained by alternative hypotheses. This implies that factors affecting export performance may be universal.