Abstract

Attractiveness is nowadays a particularly relevant issue for regional economic development, particularly in lagging areas. One of the fields in which it is crucial for a region to be attractive is certainly that of foreign direct investments. On this topic there is a very vast literature mostly characterized by a quantitative approach, being centered on cross-sectional econometric analyses, such as those often carried out for the Italian regions. In this paper we intend to fill this gap by presenting the results of a qualitative analysis based on three case studies of foreign direct investments in the South, conducted using semi-structured direct interviews, and the use of secondary data. Specifically, we focus on the case of Campania, currently one of the most dynamic southern regions, even in terms of attraction of FDIs, such that it is now out of the list of the most lagging regions of the country.