WP n. 12 - Nuovi investitori globali: le imprese cinesi in Italia

This paper focuses on the consequences of a recent phenomenon: the Chinese Go Global policy, which encourages domestic rms to enter the global competition through active internationalization processes. At the present, Chinese investments are still small compared to the to world value of OFDIs, but it's interesting to focus on their trends and skyrocketing growth. The paper summarizes the main stages of the Go Global and presents historical series of data concerning ows and stocks. The attention is then drawn on the Italian case. Italy is still not playing a major role in Chinese companies' internationalization strategies. Flows and stocks of investments are still low and companies investing in Italy are not so many. But things are changing quickly. Italy is becoming more and more interesting for Chinese companies to acquire brands, knowledge and speci c 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 companies operating in Italy (names, sector of activity, internationalization strategies followed) are discussed and analyzed. Some ideas to develop further research activities conclude the paper.