Fiat as a Multinational: Strategies and Performances

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Abstract:

Multi-domestic, regional and global strategies developed by Fiat Auto and by its suppliers’ system are analysed in a historical perspective. The evolving international strategies of Fiat Auto have been based – in different periods - on regional networks in Europe, including Italy, Poland, Serbia and Turkey; in Mercosur, where Brazilian and Argentinean affiliates were supposed to integrate; in NAFTA, after the acquisition of Chrysler and its progressive integration with the Fiat Group.

Since the second half of the 1990s and till the mid-2000, the project of a world car, specially oriented to the needs of emerging countries, represented the transition from a multi-regional configuration towards a “focused” global strategy, but it soon showed its limits.

The presentation sheds light on the good performances of Fiat in Brasil, contrasting with a still marginal role in India and China, where new alliances and joint ventures have been created. In the conclusions, the results and limits of two decades of multinational growth by Fiat and critically assessed.