Impact Of Microsoft Italia On The IT Market And Role Of The Subsidiary In The Evolution Of Microsoft Corporation

Much has been written about the concept of multinational companies and the motivations that persuade firms to invest abroad. In 1958 the French economist Maurice Bye has introduced the expression "multi-territorial firm"; in 1960 David E. Lilienthal has written a paper concerning the problems of US corporations with "overseas operations", defined "multinational corporations".After having briefly analysed the motivations that persuade investors to expand abroad, the work aims at linking the literature to Microsoft Italia’s case. In particular, this work has the ambition to develop an exhaustive analysis of:key reasons that in 1985 have persuaded Bill Gates and his team to open a subsidiary, avoiding other organization models and forms of products sale; strengths, opportunities and threats of being physically present in the territory and the established relations with Institutions, partners and clients; the actions made by the company in order to improve and influence IT sector and its effective impact, with a particular focus on the main pivotal partnerships and activities; the main challenges and changes of the first 30 years of the subsidiaries, highlighting in particular the events occurred from 1985 to 2006; and, finally, which will be the future.