The Internationalization Strategies of Italian MNCs in India

This study explores the characteristics of Italian foreign direct investment (FDI) in India and aims at filling the gap identified in the literature (i.e., a lack of empirical studies on Italian MNCs internationalizing in India) by providing an exploratory study on this issue. In particular, different questions need basically to be asked and answered, such as "Why do Italian firms invest in India," "Role of the subsidiary in the international network of the Italian MNC," and "Its value chain configuration." In order to investigate the research questions, a unique database of Italian firms that invested in India was created. The first empirical confirmation we collected was about the low number of Italian companies with subsidiaries in India. In terms of internationalization goals it emerges clearly from the research that the main target is market seeking. In order to acquire that market share Italian companies have organized their subsidiaries as partially independent companies, adopting a typical "multidomestic" approach.