Chinese investments in Italy: corporate strategies and cross-cultural dynamics

Abstract

For decades, China has been one of the most popular recipients of Outbound Foreign Direct Investments (OFDI) and this contributed to foster its impressive and steadfast economic growth. In recent years, though, China became increasingly sophisticated and, through its internationalization process, it started to expand overseas, becoming a source of multinational activity. It first targeted developing countries for resource-seeking motives and then it targeted developed countries looking for market access and strategic assets. Thus, Chinese Dragon Multinationals are responsible for the inversion of this long-established investment trend. This master’s degree thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter serves as an introduction: first of all, it describes the rise of emerging-market multinationals and the results achieved in the last few years. Then, it explores the factors that contributed to China’s globalization, such as the “Open Door” policy promoted by the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and the more recent “Go Global” policy. Finally, it analyses in depth the Chinese government’s ambitious plan of the Belt and Road Initiative. The second chapter sets out to analyze the path followed by Chinese firms in their expansion in Europe. This part of the work sheds light on the countries and sectors targeted in Europe, together with China’s strategic objectives. The third chapter focuses on the China-Italy strategic partnership and its foundations. Moreover, it also outlines the most frequent entry modes and patterns of Chinese investments in Italy with an industry-level analysis. The fourth chapter presents the most relevant cases of Italian firms’ acquisitions by Chinese groups, so as to determine the key challenges faced from negotiation to the post-acquisition phase, the cross-cultural issues related to business management and the advantages deriving from the establishment of partnerships with Chinese entrepreneurs.