Now-a-days fundamental changes are taking place in the world as well as in the global economy, where events such as globalization, financial crises, wars, hurricanes and earthquakes - just to new a few of them - are shaping the daily life of million of people. However, to be aware of these events is not possible without another phenomenon that makes information about these extraordinary events available to each of us, i.e. innovation, since without it would not be possible to know about these events. However, one of the fields where innovation occurs really fast is the field of information and communication technologies (ICT). Indeed, incredible progress in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) has made things possible today which would have been unthinkable some decades ago, and as ICT continued to spread into all sectors of social and economic life, it became a vital instrument for creating knowledge based society, building and sustaining human development, as well as transforming our world from the industrial society into an informational one. In this context, by the opening of borders to trade and foreign investment, globalization brings opportunities and pressures for domestic firms in global market economies to innovate and improve their competitive position, and thus contribute to foster the economic growth of a country. Aware of this, and even though the Lisbon Strategy, set out by the European Council in Lisbon in March 2000, with the aim to make the EU "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion", by 2010, did not fully accomplished most of its initial goals, many countries are now starting policies with the aim to develop their strategic innovative sectors in order to compete in the international markets. Among these countries we can find also Germany and Italy, which aware of their growth po- tentials in some high-tech sectors such as ICT, are seizing the moment by reconsidering new policy actions to cope with the international competitive pressures that the globalization as unleashed in the last few years. Bearing this in mind, aim of this work is to present the current trends, as well as growth potentials, in the German and Italian ICT sectors by focusing the attention on venture capital and high-tech start-ups.

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Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Company formation, Business Plans, grade: 1.0, Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences, language: English, abstract: Now-a-days fundamental changes are taking place in the world as well as in the global economy, where events such as globalization, financial crises, wars, hurricanes and earthquakes - just to new a few of them - are shaping the daily life of million of people. However, to be aware of these events is not possible without another phenomenon that makes information about these extraordinary events available to each of us, i.e. innovation, since without it would not be possible to know about these events. However, one of the fields where innovation occurs really fast is the field of information and communication technologies (ICT). Indeed, incredible progress in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) has made things possible today which would have been unthinkable some decades ago, and as ICT continued to spread into all sectors of social and economic life, it became a vital instrument for creating knowledge based society, building and sustaining human development, as well as transforming our world from the industrial society into an informational one. In this context, by the opening of borders to trade and foreign investment, globalization brings opportunities and pressures for domestic firms in global market economies to innovate and improve their competitive position, and thus contribute to foster the economic growth of a country. Aware of this, and even though the Lisbon Strategy, set out by the European Council in Lisbon in March 2000, with the aim to make the EU "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion", by 2010, did not fully accomplished most of its initial goals, many countries are now starting policies with the aim to develop their strategic innovative sectors in order to compete in the international markets. Among these countries we can find also Germany and Italy, which aware of their growth po- tentials in some high-tech sectors such as ICT, are seizing the moment by reconsidering new policy actions to cope with the international competitive pressures that the globalization as unleashed in the last few years. Bearing this in mind, aim of this work is to present the current trends, as well as growth potentials, in the German and Italian ICT sectors by focusing the attention on venture capital and high-tech start-ups.