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 15