Ricerc@Sapienza

The rapid development and adoption of Internet and digital technologies
dramatically changed business processes, leading to a disruptive digital transformation
of the whole industry value chain. The so-called Industry 4.0 refers to a
complex evolution of the entire industrial sector that includes technological
advances in production equipment (i.e. Additive Manufacturing), smart finished
products (IoT), data tools and analytics, involving activities and stakeholders at all

This paper explores the main drivers of firms’ external competitiveness in times of crisis. We focus on the aftermath of the Great Recession (2008–2015) and present evidence based on a comprehensive survey of Italian companies (the MET dataset). Overall, our results highlight not only the strict correlation between internationalization and innovative activities but also a positive change of attitude of Italian firms towards these strategies.

Credit Guarantee Schemes (CGSs) issue partial guarantees to cope with financial instability and moral hazard problems on the part of the borrowing firms. Our paper focuses on the magnitude of partial coverage ratios, proposing and applying a dose–response model to identify both the minimum (below which guarantees are not effective) and optimal (the one maximizing the guarantees effectiveness) magnitude.

Purpose –The purpose of this study is to analyse the link between innovation technology (IT), relationships which affect the relational capital (RC), and intangible value for the environment, focusing on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of agro-food sector (AFS) in which these topics are prominent.

The internationalization of R&D activities has become crucial for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to create sources of competitive advantage. This research aims to analyze the role of social capital and information technology (IT) in enhancing knowledge sharing and innovation capabilities in the particular context of SMEs with geographically dispersed R&D teams.