Abstract
The chemical industry is one of the largest and growing industry sectors globally. Similarly, the chemical and related sector in New Zealand (NZ) has attracted investment, grown in firm numbers, innovation rate, Research and Development (R&D), and employment. Considering these trends, NZ’s chemical and related sector need to leverage the advantages presented in the global markets. Hence, this thesis aims to investigate the internationalisation of chemical and related sector in NZ, which is an under-researched area. The research approach was a qualitative single-case embedded method with multiple units of analysis, the firm being the unit of analysis. This study conducted indepth interviews with 20 firms in the chemical and related sector of NZ to investigate the reason for internationalisation, internationalisation challenges, the strategies firms use to overcome those challenges, and the firm-specific advantages for their successful internationalisation. The limited local market, the firm's partner network, unsolicited orders, and the firm's product features are the predominant reasons for their internationalisation. The predominant challenges are supply chain and logistics, production, compliance and regulations, and risk around payments. Strategies firms use to overcome these challenges are working with partners, minimising causes of challenges, and employing secure transaction terms. The competitive edge of these firms is the product competitiveness, niche focus and country of origin. The findings of this study compared with the characteristics of five dominant international models/frameworks: Uppsala, RBV, OLI, INV, and Matthew’s LLL model. The outcome of this study contributes to theory by proposing a model to internationalise a firm’s core competencies and contribute to practitioners and policymakers by providing guidelines for internationalisation learnt from this study.