LE MULTINAZIONALI DEI PAESI EMERGENTI: GLI INVESTIMENTI CINESI IN ITALIA

This paper focuses on a recent phenomenon: the Chinese Go global policy, which encourages domestic firms to enter the global competition through active internationalization processes. At present, Chinese investments are still small compared to the world value of outward foreign direct investments, but it is interesting to focus on their trends and skyrocketing growth. The attention is drawn to the Italian case. Italy is still not playing a major role in Chinese companies’ internationalization strategies. Flows and stocks of investments are low and only a small number of companies is investing in Italy. But things are changing quickly. Italy is becoming increasingly interesting for Chinese companies aiming to acquire brands, knowledge and specific competencies, as well as strategic locations to penetrate European markets. The small dimension of the target companies (for acquisitions) encourage Chinese investors to come to Italy. Data on Chinese investments flows, on individual entrepreneurs, as well as on Chinese companies operating in Italy are discussed and analyzed to build a framework to test some preliminary hypotheses and to verify the interest for further research projects.