ITALIAN INVESTMENTS IN THE AGGLOMERATION OF TIMISOARA IN ROMANIA: THREAT OR OPPORTUNITY FOR THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?

The presence of foreign activities in a host country, by means of cooperation agreements and outward foreign investments, can induce positive and negative effects. These effects are closely related to the typology of the foreign activities, to the interactions between foreign and local firms and to the development of the host country. By focusing on the textileclothing agglomeration in Timioara, in Central Eastern Europe, the present paper aims to investigate whether the Italian presence in the agglomeration represents an opportunity (development path) or a threat (dependent path) to foster the socioeconomic development of the area. To achieve this goal a microlevel investigation on a sample of 90 firms, both Italian and Romanian, located in Timisoara is described and the results of the factor and cluster analyses are presented.