The Single Market and the Rise of the ‘European Champions’ Franco Mosconi Jean Monnet Chair in The Economics of European Industry Department of Economics and Management University of Parma 6, V. J. F. Kennedy PARMA 43123 Italy Email:
[email protected] Abstract This paper casts light on the “European Champions”, those big players that have capitalized on the opportunities provided by the Single Market. Compared to the “National Champions” of decades that are now long-gone, “European Champions” reflect a much larger change than just a simple variation in adjectives: the entire nature of species has evolved. No longer do these enterprises come into existence at the will of the Prince (Type I, according to our taxonomy); rather, it is now market operations -- i.e. cross border merger and acquisitions (M&As) - that determine their form (Type II). These big players can and must play a relevant role on increasing R&D investments and fostering structural change; In short, firms with the scale and scope needed to compete internationally. JEL Classification: L100, L130, L200, L220 Keywords: European Single Market; Market Structure; R&D; Mergers and Acquisitions. (This version: 15 May 2017) 1 1. Introduction Since its beginnings during the 1940s and 50s at Harvard University, market structures and economic behaviour have been at the center of all studies of Industrial Organization (IO) (Scherer, Ross 1990). The process of European integration, which was going on concomitantly, offers an excellent case-study for understanding growth strategies of enterprises in a market that is growing ever larger and more competitive. The following two sections are dedicated to these two “plots” (section 2) and to their interrelationship (section 3).