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The purpose of this paper was to examine the intervening role of export-related resources in the relationship between export assistance (EA) and export performance (EP) as well as the role of competitive intensity as a driver for the adoption of EA programmes by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The proposed model was tested on the sample of 119 SMEs that export from the Republic of Serbia. The data were gathered through an online survey. In order to test the hypotheses, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used.

The results revealed that export-related resources (intellectual, relational and managerial resources) fully mediate the relationship between EA and EP. It was shown that competitive intensity in export markets had a positive effect on the amount of EA that SMEs receive from the government, EU and other organisations.

The number of firms that participated in the survey is small. Furthermore, the responses may be biased due to the auto-selection of SMEs. The research included only SMEs from different manufacturing industries. Thus, the implications of the research cannot be applied to the service sector.

The findings of the conducted research are relevant for the managers of SMEs since they show the importance of using EA as an external resource. The use of EA improves EP through the enhancement of intellectual, relational and managerial resources. The results of this study also support further government investment in EA as it was found that EA is an effective tool for the improvement of EP of SMEs.

The effect of EA on EP was tested in Serbia, the research context in which this effect was not tested before. Besides, the proposed model gives insights into the factors that affect engagement in EA programmes, which is a topic rarely examined in the literature.