Home > Resources > Report Review   The international competetiveness of New Zealand Service Providers Authors: Vivienne Shaw & Vincent Hassan Published by: Department of Marketing, University of Otago, 2002   This report presents the findings of a study of successful international marketing strategies of New Zealand service providers. A mail survey of 123 New Zealand services firms has identified a number of major differences which distinguish successful exporters from their less successful counterparts. Successful services exporters are found to have significantly higher levels of commitment to their overseas markets. This is demonstrated by their higher levels of investment in all aspects of their international business. Top performing international service providers have made a clear decision to internationalise and have put a deliberate strategy in place to achieve this. Overseas markets are important to their continued success as they recognize the opportunities that internationalization offers them. Successful companies perceive fewer barriers to doing business overseas and have a strong international orientation with a desire to continue growing their overseas business. Less successful New Zealand services exporters by comparison have very little commitment to their overseas customers. New Zealand is their most important market and they consider international markets to be just incidental to their business. The level of investment they make internationally is significantly lower than that of successful international service providers and in many cases there appears to be little real interest in developing their international operations further. Firms of all sizes and in every service sector are found amongst the top performers which demonstrates that size is not a barrier to international success. The study develops a typology of six international service providers - Committed Internationalisers, Risk-averse Internationalisers, Ambitious Internationalisers, Adaptors, Disinterested Internationalisers and Reluctant Internationalisers. Each of these clusters is profiled and the differences between them are analysed. Finally managerial implications are presented. This report should be available on request from Department of Marketing, University of Otago, P O Box 56, Dunedin