IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cns/cnscwp/202403.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Smart Strategies, Smarter Performance: the Impact of S3 and Industry 4.0 on Firms' Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • L. Serafini
  • E. Marrocu
  • R. Paci

Abstract

This paper focuses on the impact of the Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) and Industry 4.0 (I4) initiatives during the 2014-2020 programming period on firms' performance in Italy. By analysing European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)-funded projects under these frameworks, we use OpenCoesione data and a Difference-in-Differences approach to assess the effectiveness of S3 and I4 initiatives. Our results reveal that projects integrating I4 technologies within the S3 framework (S3I4 projects) significantly enhance firms' performance. This is particularly evident when compared to projects funded under other ERDF initiatives. The study highlights the importance of aligning S3 and I4 strategies with regional economic profiles and innovation capacities to maximise their impact. Our analysis underscores the role of these initiatives in driving innovation and economic growth. The results offer key insights for policymakers, suggesting that focused and strategic investment in S3 and I4 can lead to more effective regional innovation and development.

Suggested Citation

  • L. Serafini & E. Marrocu & R. Paci, 2024. "Smart Strategies, Smarter Performance: the Impact of S3 and Industry 4.0 on Firms' Outcomes," Working Paper CRENoS 202403, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    • Handle: RePEc:cns:cnscwp:202403
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://crenos.unica.it/crenos/node/7737
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://crenos.unica.it/crenos/sites/default/files/wp-24-03.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Riccardo Crescenzi & Mara Giua, 2020. "One or many Cohesion Policies of the European Union? On the differential economic impacts of Cohesion Policy across member states," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(1), pages 10-20, January.
    2. Dominique Lepore & Francesca Spigarelli, 2020. "Integrating Industry 4.0 plans into regional innovation strategies," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 35(5), pages 496-510, August.
    3. Jason Deegan & Tom Broekel & Rune Dahl Fitjar, 2021. "Searching through the Haystack:The Relatedness and Complexity of Priorities in Smart Specialization Strategies," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 97(5), pages 497-520, October.
    4. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    5. Mari José Aranguren & Edurne Magro & Mikel Navarro & James R. Wilson, 2019. "Governance of the territorial entrepreneurial discovery process: looking under the bonnet of RIS3," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 451-461, April.
    6. Pierre-Alexandre Balland & Ron Boschma & Joan Crespo & David L. Rigby, 2019. "Smart specialization policy in the European Union: relatedness, knowledge complexity and regional diversification," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(9), pages 1252-1268, September.
    7. Robert Hassink & Huiwen Gong, 2019. "Six critical questions about smart specialization," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(10), pages 2049-2065, October.
    8. Philip McCann & Raquel Ortega-Argil�s, 2015. "Smart Specialization, Regional Growth and Applications to European Union Cohesion Policy," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(8), pages 1291-1302, August.
    9. Julia Bachtrögler & Ugo Fratesi & Giovanni Perucca, 2020. "The influence of the local context on the implementation and impact of EU Cohesion Policy," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(1), pages 21-34, January.
    10. Diego D'Adda & Donato Iacobucci & Roberto Palloni, 2020. "Relatedness in the implementation of Smart Specialisation Strategy: a first empirical assessment," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 405-425, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Barbero, Javier & Diukanova, Olga & Gianelle, Carlo & Salotti, Simone & Santoalha, Artur, 2024. "Technologically related diversification: One size does not fit all European regions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(3).
    2. Ron Boschma, 2022. "Evolutionary Economic Geography and Policy," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2220, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Oct 2022.
    3. Ron Boschma, 2021. "Designing Smart Specialization Policy: relatedness, unrelatedness, or what?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2128, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2021.
    4. László Szerb & Raquel Ortega‐Argilés & Zoltan J. Acs & Éva Komlósi, 2020. "Optimizing entrepreneurial development processes for smart specialization in the European Union," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(5), pages 1413-1457, October.
    5. E. Marrocu & R. Paci & D. Rigby & S. Usai, 2020. "Smart Specialization Strategy: any relatedness between theory and practice?," Working Paper CRENoS 202004, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    6. Korneliusz Pylak & Jason Deegan & Tom Broekel, 2024. "Smart Specialisation or Smart Following? A study of policy mimicry in priority domain selection," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2439, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2024.
    7. Wei Zhang & Canfei He, 2024. "Perilous Evolutionary Paths of Industrial Policy in a Developmental Context: Evidence from the Chinese Medical Industry," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 115(3), pages 384-401, July.
    8. Hidalgo, César A., 2023. "The policy implications of economic complexity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(9).
    9. Giua, Mara & Hoxhaj, Rezart & Pierucci, Eleonora, 2022. "Inclusive Europe: the impact of the EU Cohesion Policy on immigrants’ economic integration in Italy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 532-549.
    10. Christopher Meyer, 2022. "Social Innovation Governance in Smart Specialisation Policies and Strategies Heading towards Sustainability: A Pathway to RIS4?," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-14, March.
    11. Giacomo Lo Conte & Andrea Mina & Silvia Rocchetta, 2023. "Turning technological relatedness into industrial strategy: The productivity effects of Smart Specialisation in Europe," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2323, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Dec 2023.
    12. De Noni, Ivan & Ganzaroli, Andrea & Pilotti, Luciano, 2021. "Spawning exaptive opportunities in European regions: The missing link in the smart specialization framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(6).
    13. Kyriakos Drivas & Claire Economidou & Ioannis Kaplanis & Maria Theano Tagaraki, 2023. "Examination of related diversification in laggard regions," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 102(4), pages 851-869, August.
    14. Jan Ženka & Marcela Chreneková & Lucie Kokešová & Veronika Svetlíková, 2021. "Industrial Structure and Economic Resilience of Non-Metropolitan Regions: An Empirical Base for the Smart Specialization Policies," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-21, December.
    15. Agnieszka Janik & Adam Ryszko & Marek Szafraniec, 2020. "Mapping the Field of Smart Specialisation and Regional Innovation Strategy Literature – A Bibliometric Analysis," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 655-673.
    16. Jason Deegan & Tom Broekel & Rune Dahl Fitjar, 2021. "Searching through the Haystack:The Relatedness and Complexity of Priorities in Smart Specialization Strategies," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 97(5), pages 497-520, October.
    17. Giedrė Dzemydaitė, 2021. "The Impact of Economic Specialization on Regional Economic Development in the European Union: Insights for Formation of Smart Specialization Strategy," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-15, May.
    18. Varga, Attila & Sebestyén, Tamás & Szabó, Norbert, 2021. "Az intelligens szakosodási politika gazdasági hatásainak modellezése [Economic impact assessment of smart specialization policy]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(9), pages 901-929.
    19. Attila Varga & Norbert Szabó & Tamás Sebestyén, 2020. "Economic impact modelling of smart specialization policy: Which industries should prioritization target?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(5), pages 1367-1388, October.
    20. Balland, Pierre-Alexandre & Broekel, Tom & Diodato, Dario & Giuliani, Elisa & Hausmann, Ricardo & O'Clery, Neave & Rigby, David, 2022. "Reprint of The new paradigm of economic complexity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(8).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Smart Specialisation Strategy; Industry 4.0; Innovation and firm Performance; Cohesion Policy; Counterfactual Impact Analysis;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cns:cnscwp:202403. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CRENoS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/crenoit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.