Ceris-Cnr, W.P. N°13/ 2000

4.

The degree of industry active multinationality in Italy

Active multinationality refers to the presence of Italian firms that went
multinational. This concept is, however, different from the index indicated as MNEITA.
The index MNEITA measures active multinationality referring to the weight of Italian
firms involved in the process of internationalisation of production. It considers, then, the
sales of Italian multinational firms in Italy and not the sales of foreign affiliates of
Italian firms, as in the following table.

Table 4. Evolution of the number and sales* of foreign affiliates of Italian firms
1985

Traditional sectors
Scale intensive sectors
Specialised sectors
Science-based sectors
Total

Traditional sectors
Scale intensive sectors
Specialised sectors
Science-based sectors
Total

1993

1995

1998

N.

%

N.

%

N.

%

N.

%

99
319
72
75

17.5
56.5
12.7
13.3

309
631
146
116

25.7
52.5
12.1
9.7

389
717
169
126

27.8
51.2
12.0
9.0

436
720
241
134

28.5
47.0
15.7
8.8

565

100

1202

100

1401

100

1531

100

Sales

%

Sales

%

Sales

%

Sales

%

NA
NA
NA
NA

NA
NA
NA
NA

12386
72616
7915
5787

12.5
76.3
8.0
5.9

16146
77810
9748
5538

14.8
71.2
8.9
5.1

20395 13.7
105533 70.7
16412 11.0
6965 4.7

109242 100

149305 100

98704 100

NA

* Billions of Italian lire. NA indicates not available data.
Source: Cominotti and Mariotti, different years.

The analysis of Table 4 reveals a declining trend in sales and number of foreign
affiliates in scale intensive sectors and science-based sectors. On the contrary, between
1995 and 1998 the number of firms and their sales increased in specialised sectors. In
traditional sectors the number of foreign affiliates continuously increased between 1985
and 1998, but sales of the sector between 1995 and 1998 declined as percentage of total
sales. This should reflect the increasing number of small firms involved in the process
of internationalisation of production in Italy. This situation describes the peculiar

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