Studies on firms’ internationalisation in Italian journals: themes, trends and future directions

The growing importance of internationalisation strategies leads us to investigate the development trend of the research contributions and attempt to bridge the gap in the Italian versus the international literature. The paper conducts a review of the Italian journals and is a significant step forward in highlighting the relevance of internationalisation as an “exit strategy” from the current global economic crisis and market stagnation. The research reviews the articles published in 11 leading Italian journals in the 1999-2009 period. After analysing the foreign reviews of international management and international business research, the paper surveys the articles and research areas found in the Italian literature on firms’ internationalisation and compares them with the international literature. A total of 266 articles were identified and subsequently grouped into seven distinct topics in line with the framework adopted: global environment; strategies; leadership and organisation; business functions; SME internationalisation; general theories and multi-topic studies; and international trade and FDI. The review then divides each of the topics into sub-topics. The discussion highlights the areas in which key contributions have been made and indicates potential areas for future research in the Italian literature