  Heavy quarks are produced in the early stages of ultra-relativistic hadron
collisions via hard scatterings and are an important tool for studying
different aspects of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) in hadronic collisions.
Charged-particle multiplicity gives information on the global characteristics
of the event and could be used to characterize particle production mechanisms.
In hadronic collisions at Large Hadron Collider (LHC) energies, there is a
significant contribution of multi-parton interactions. The measurement of
heavy-flavour yields as a function of charged-particle multiplicity gives
insight into the mechanisms influencing their production in hadronic collisions
at these energies and it is a tool to test the possible influence of
multi-parton interactions. Furthermore, the charged-particle multiplicity
dependence of open heavy flavours is used to test the ability of QCD
theoretical models to describe the data. In ALICE, heavy-flavour production is
measured via the hadronic and semi-leptonic decay channels (electrons at
central rapidity and muons at forward rapidity). Charged-particle multiplicity
is measured at central and forward rapidity. We will present the results on
open heavy-flavour production as a function of the charged-particle
multiplicity in pp and pPb collisions. Results will be compared to quarkonia
measurements as well as theoretical model calculations.
