International strategies of NIC firms in Europe

This article reports on a study of the international strategies of South Korean, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, and Singapore firms in advanced industrialized markets. Thirty-four cases of international strategies were cluster analyzed to identify common strategies. Four main strategies were identified together with their attendant firm characteristics and performance. They include: (1) A strategy of differentiation with aggressive growth objectives and a high degree of parent company support; (2) Low cost strategy and broad product coverage; (3) A focus strategy with limited product range and highly decentralized operation; and (4) A conservative strategy concentrating chiefly on manufacturing skills and serving mainly OEM customers. Variation in performance across clusters was not statistically significant.