MULTINATIONAL FIRMS R&D CENTERS IN PIEDMONT

In the actual scenario of high technological competitiveness and environmental complexity, MNEs focus the attention on the R&D activities. The context is more and more dominated by a strong and growing competition between companies among their global forcing organisations to move the focus of competitive advantage from the classical sources to new strategies. More specifically, the choice of locating in a specific place may have important consequences on the general performance of the group. This paper focus on foreign MNEs that have decided to start their own R&D activity in Piedmont, one of the 20 regions of Italy. These companies choose on the strength of several drivers. This paper goes beyond the existing literature analyzing the level of satisfaction that MNEs give after the settlement. 51 MNE in Piedmont were analyzed and most of them revealed to be generally satisfied. This result has been confirmed by the high level of presence after 3 years from the settlement. At the end improvement areas were found, such as utilities available and bureaucracy level.