Chinese FDI strategy in Italy: the 'Marco Polo' effect

Carlo Pietrobelli, Roberta Rabellotti and Marco Sanfilippo

International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, 2011, vol. 4, issue 4, 277-291

Abstract: This study investigates the motivations driving Chinese outward direct investment to Italy. The analysis is based on secondary sources and in-depth interviews with key informants and senior managers of Chinese affiliates in Italy. The evolution of the Chinese firms' pattern of entry in Italy confirms the model followed by Chinese firms in other European countries, but we obtain some additional interesting results. Chinese investments in Italy are increasingly targeting the acquisition of technological capabilities and of design skills and brands to tap local competences available in specialised manufacturing clusters in sectors such as automotives and home appliances. They try to link, leverage and learn from foreign acquisitions. The main industries of specialisation of Chinese OFDI in Italy reflect this approach and appear to be related to China's strategy to increase the sophistication of its exports and to move away from standardised commodities and intermediate manufactures and components.

Keywords: China; foreign direct investment; Italy; FDI strategy; linkage; leverage; learning; exports; technological capabilities; design skills; brands; local competences; manufacturing clusters; automotive manufacturing; automobile industry; domestic appliances; foreign acquisitions; FDI motivations; Chinese FDI. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=44138 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijtlid:v:4:y:2011:i:4:p:277-291

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker (informationadministrator5@inderscience.com).