This paper develops taxonomy of Philippine exporters based on performance measures associated with small firms engaged in international business, and explores the potential of the firm’s resources, strategy preferences and expectations in predicting category membership. Utilizing 215 responses gathered from the participants of the 1998 Gifts and Houseware Week sponsored by CITEM (Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions), an attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry, a split-half analysis combining hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster procedures is performed. Stepwise discriminant analysis has identified two dimensions of business strategy and cost strategy. Results show that the differentiation strategy leads to a higher performance classification while the cost strategy leads to a lower performance classification. These findings suggest that organizational development efforts (e.g., technology development, product design, training, and financial assistance) must be considered due to their impact on improving differentiation. The findings also support the theory that competitive strategy acts as an intervening variable between a firm’s resources and its export behavior.
