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The Outward Projection of Italian Firms: Facts and Figures on Foreign Affiliates

  • Entrepreneurship and International Management
  • Published:
Transition Studies Review

Abstract

In the last two decades or so, globalisation has prompted a great deal of attention in the study of the international organisation of production, with in-depth industry studies on its welfare effects, both for firms and for workers. Outcomes did not prove a unique direction of effects, although the heterogeneous firms’ approach emphasised the intra-industry reallocation through intra-sectoral international competition. Thus, differences in the inner structure of companies filled the gap on the micro-level analysis that featured the study of international trade for several decades, although there is still the need to understand the effects of internationalisation on local systems of production and link such results to the consolidated meso-level of analysis of trade flows. Thanks to the microdata provided by the Italian Statistical Office (ISTAT), we are able to access information on the presence of Italian firms abroad, distinguished by geographical area of origin, destination and industry and check for their influence on affiliates’ structure and performance through appropriate indicators.

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Notes

  1. The terms transnational corporation and multinational enterprise are used as synonymous in the whole article.

  2. However, there is a certain degree of heterogeneity amongst SMEs as medium sized enterprises have increasingly expanded their presence abroad through a thick web of FDI.

  3. We shall return later to this point, supplying the details of the dataset.

  4. However, this is not always the case, as noticed for the Northern African countries.

  5. It seems worthwhile stressing again that former USSR countries seem to be an outlier for the picture drawn for the extremely high productivity values, a fact that does not change the vertical nature of the investment in that area.

  6. Indeed, such group includes not only financial services and consultancies, but also services linked to tourism, hospitality and all kinds of commerce.

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Acknowledgments

The research in this paper was conducted at the Analisi Dati ELEmentari facilities (ADELE) in Venice, Italy. Any opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the Authors and do not necessarily represent neither the views of the Italian Statistical Office (ISTAT), nor of the ADELE service. All results have been reviewed to ensure that no confidential information is disclosed. The authors are very grateful to Marina Schenkel, scientific supervisor of the project, and to Giulia Pavan for excellent research assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy

    Marco Giansoldati, Claudio Pizzi, Giancarlo Corò & Mario Volpe

  2. Department of Economics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Marco Giansoldati

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  1. Marco Giansoldati
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  2. Claudio Pizzi
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  3. Giancarlo Corò
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  4. Mario Volpe
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Correspondence to Marco Giansoldati.

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Giansoldati, M., Pizzi, C., Corò, G. et al. The Outward Projection of Italian Firms: Facts and Figures on Foreign Affiliates. Transit Stud Rev 19, 139–154 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11300-012-0244-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11300-012-0244-4

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