Impacts of industry 4.0 investments on firm performance: Evidence from Italy

Marco Bettiol, Mauro Capestro, Eleonora Di Maria and Andrea Furlan
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Marco Bettiol: Department of Economics and Management, University of Padova
Mauro Capestro: Department of Economics and Management, University of Padova
Eleonora Di Maria: Department of Economics and Management, University of Padova
Andrea Furlan: Department of Economics and Management, University of Padova

No 233, "Marco Fanno" Working Papers from Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno"

Abstract: The adoption of industry 4.0 technologies is assumed to bring superior competitive advantage for adopting firms as drivers of efficiency, differentiation as well as support to innovation. However, no studies capture the impacts of industry 4.0 technologies on firm’s financial performance. The paper explores the relationship between investments in digital technologies and firm performances, by also examining which are the technologies more likely to be associated with superior performance and eventually the cumulative effect of technologies on performance. Based on unique data gathered in 2017 on a sample of 1,149 Italian firms, results show the positive impacts on adopters’ performance and the role of robotics and laser cutting in this relationship. No cumulative effect (i.e. adopting more than one or two technologies) is instead observed.

Keywords: digital technologies; performance; strategy; industry 4.0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2019-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cse, nep-eff, nep-eur, nep-ict and nep-sbm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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