The Industry-focused International Strategy

Many firms facing low-cost international competition can reposition into niches. This study examines one such niche: industry-focused international firms, defined as companies that produce, sell, and expand internationally within one industry. Analysis of the global pharmaceutical industry finds a group comprising of about 20 % of the firms that pursue this strategy. This strategy is distributed internationally, but not uniformly. It is relatively more prevalent among firms based in emerging countries compared to industrialized nations. These firms invest in R&D in order to create deep specialized expertise that they exploit internationally.