Italy

Doing Business in Italy

Renowned for its art, food and rich history, Italy remains an attractive economy for investment as it recovers from the global financial crisis and continues to grow steadily each year. Once home to the Roman Empire, Italy is now home to over 60 million people. Due to its location in Europe and the Mediterranean, it contains a myriad of different cultures and traditions. The country plays a prominent global role in everything from economics to military and diplomatic affairs.

Major obstacles that companies may encounter when doing business in Italy are a complex bureaucracy and regulatory framework, a slow judicial system, and competitive challenges due to high levels of bribery, corruption and tax evasion. On the one hand, Italy boasts one of the largest economies worldwide and in Europe in terms of GDP. On the other hand, it often ranks poorly in the Index of Economic Freedom. For this reason, expert advice is essential when considering doing business in Italy.

Despite Italy’s issues, there are many advantages of doing business there, including government incentives for foreign investors. Its diversified economy is home to almost all sectors of industry. While the Northern regions predominantly focus on food, textiles, machinery, iron and steel, clothing, footwear and ceramics, Southern Italy’s main areas are agriculture, manufacturing and tourism. There is, however, a clear wealth gap between the North and South, as the Northern regions are much more affluent. Despite this, Italy is financially developed and viewed as an ideal country for business, with its modern infrastructure, gateways to the Mediterranean, Middle East and European markets, and high levels of internationalisation and entrepreneurship.

Cross-cultural awareness is also vital for establishing business connections, as Italian culture remains very family-oriented. Furthermore, there is a tendency towards hierarchical attitudes in Italian companies as well as regional biases. On the other hand, meetings are typically less formal than in many other European nations.

For all the information you need to expand firms into Italy, the World Business Culture website is the number-one source.

Author

This country-specific business culture profile was written by Keith Warburton who is the founder of the cultural awareness training consultancy Global Business Culture. 

Global Business culture is a leading training provider in the fields of cross-cultural communication and global virtual team working.  We provide training to global corporations in live classroom-based formats, through webinars and also through our cultural awareness digital learning hub, Global Business Compass.

This World Business Culture profile is designed as an introduction to business culture in Italy only and a more detailed understanding needs a more in-depth exploration which we can provide through our training and consultancy services.