IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/indcch/v34y2025i5p927-956..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Smart strategies, smarter performance: the impact of S3 and industry 4.0 on firms’ outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Luca Serafini
  • Emanuela Marrocu
  • Raffaele Paci

Abstract

This paper focuses on the impact of the Smart Specialization Strategy (S3) and Industry 4.0 (I4) initiatives on firms’ performance in Italy during the 2014–2020 programming period. By analyzing European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)-funded projects, we use OpenCoesione data and the staggered Difference-in-Differences approach to assess the effectiveness of S3 and I4 investment projects. Our results reveal that firms’ projects integrating I4 technologies within the regional S3 framework significantly enhance firms’ performance measured, alternatively, by value added, employment, and labor productivity. This positive effect is particularly evident when compared to firms’ investment projects funded under other ERDF plans. Our analysis underlines the role of S3 and I4 initiatives in stimulating innovation and firms’ outcomes. It carries profound implications for managers and firms, highlighting strategic and focused investment in S3 and I4 as a pathway to enhanced regional innovation and development effectiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Luca Serafini & Emanuela Marrocu & Raffaele Paci, 2025. "Smart strategies, smarter performance: the impact of S3 and industry 4.0 on firms’ outcomes," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 34(5), pages 927-956.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:34:y:2025:i:5:p:927-956.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/icc/dtaf010
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    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:oup:indcch:v:34:y:2025:i:5:p:927-956.. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/icc .

    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.