ABSTRACT
This chapter will address these closely interrelated questions. Size alone would not serve as an adequate variable to differentiate firm strategies and behaviour beyond describing a superficial small versus large firm dichotomy. A more completed typology of firms will therefore be developed. This has also been emphasised in chapter two. Already Taylor and Thrift (1983a) have identified segmentation patterns in business organisation that go well beyond a simple dualistic structure. In chapter four we states that different types of sub-contractors have different opportunities in the internationalisation process. As the chemical industry is an extremely heterogeneous industry group, the analysis presented here will be based on one particular branch of this industry, that producing pigments, dyes, paints and varnishes (PDPVs).
