International operations strategy of public sector organisations

Public sector organisations in many countries are internationalising their operations into other countries. This internationalisation frequently follows channels such as aid schemes offered by the country's government. An investigation was conducted to determine whether the four categories of stJ'ategy approach in Miles and Snow's typology could be used to categorise the internationalisation operation strategy approach of Australian public sector organisations. Qualitative data collected from eight Australian public sector organisations determined that a set of nine operations strategy dimensions identified from the literature applied to the internationalisation behaviours of Australian public sector organisations. The data also indicated that Miles and Snow's four categories of strategy could be used to describe the combined international operation strategy behaviours of Australian public sector organisations. In addition, it was found that the international operation strategy behaviours of Australian public sector organisations aligned with at least two (and in one case four) of Miles and Snow's strategy categories. Alignment with two of Miles and Snow's strategy categories was quite commonly identified in other empirical studies of this typology.