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Regional mapping of ICT specialization and adoption of industry 4.0 technologies in Greece

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  • Stamopoulos, Dimitrios
  • Dimas, Petros
  • Siokas, Evangelos
  • Tsakanikas, Aggelos

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide a mapping of business ICT specialization and adoption of novel digital production technologies across Greek regions. In addition, it aims to preliminarily investigate whether these aspects are associated with regional economic performance. We develop specialization indicators of each region's ICT activities and economic performance using NUTS3 level data and combine them with regional firm-level data regarding the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies from a large-scale field survey of 1014 industrial firms. Our findings add a novel geographical scope to the ongoing discussion regarding the digital transformation of the Greek economy, highlighting the ICT specialization asymmetries and different digital technology adoption rates between a cluster of highly specialized and connected metropolitan regions and the rest of the mostly rural regions. The results provide preliminary input regarding the importance of region-level characteristics, which are remarkably absent and must be considered in the ongoing national ICT policy discussion.

Suggested Citation

  • Stamopoulos, Dimitrios & Dimas, Petros & Siokas, Evangelos & Tsakanikas, Aggelos, 2025. "Regional mapping of ICT specialization and adoption of industry 4.0 technologies in Greece," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:49:y:2025:i:2:s0308596124002003
    DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2024.102903
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    ICTs; Regional specialization; Digitalization; Industry 4.0; Greece;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • R15 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Econometric and Input-Output Models; Other Methods
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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