Network analysis to detect common strategies in the Italian foreign direct investment

Abstract

In this paper we reconstruct and discuss the network of Italian firms investing abroad, exploiting information from complex network analysis. This method, detecting the key nodes of the system (both in terms of firms and countries of destination), allows us to single out the linkages among firms without ex-ante priors. Moreover, through the examination of affiliates’ economic activity, it allows us to highlight different internationalization strategies of “leaders” in different manufacturing sectors.