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Technical efficiency and ICT investment in Italian manufacturing firms

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  • Concetta Castiglione

Abstract

The importance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is a much debated question with extensive literature aimed at understanding the role of ICTs in increasing economic growth, firm productivity and firm efficiency. Different methods to estimate firm efficiency are used in this study. In particular, both the translog and the Cobb--Douglas production functions are used in order to estimate the impact of ICT on Technical Efficiency (TE) in Italian manufacturing firms over the period 1995 to 2003. Results show that ICT investments positively and significantly affected firms’ TE. Moreover, group, size and geographical position have a positive influence on TE. Finally, the results show that older firms are, on average, more efficient than newer ones.

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  • Concetta Castiglione, 2012. "Technical efficiency and ICT investment in Italian manufacturing firms," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(14), pages 1749-1763, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:44:y:2012:i:14:p:1749-1763
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2011.554374
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    8. Graziella Bonanno, 2016. "ICT and R&D as inputs or efficiency determinants? Analysing Italian manufacturing firms (2007–2009)," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 6(3), pages 383-404, December.
    9. Jorge Antonio Rodríguez-Moreno & María Engracia Rochina-Barrachina, 2019. "ICT Use, Investments in R&D and Workers’ Training, Firms’ Productivity and Markups: The Case of Ecuadorian Manufacturing," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(4), pages 1063-1106, September.
    10. Luo, Zhengying & Chiu, Yung-Ho & Tang, Lingling & Xu, Yayun & Lu, Ching-Cheng, 2016. "Industrial Enterprises' Innovation Efficiency And The Influence Of Capital Source: Based On Statistical Data Of Industrial Enterprises In Jiangsu Province," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 57(2), pages 175-193, December.
    11. Bashir, Sadaf & Sadowski, B. M., 2014. "General purpose technologies: A survey, a critique and future research directions," 25th European Regional ITS Conference, Brussels 2014 101443, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    12. Aboal, Diego & Tacsir, Ezequiel, 2015. "Innovation and Productivity in Services and Manufacturing: The Role of ICT Investment," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 7381, Inter-American Development Bank.
    13. Castiglione, Concetta & Infante, Davide, 2014. "ICTs and time-span in technical efficiency gains. A stochastic frontier approach over a panel of Italian manufacturing firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 55-65.
    14. Pieri, Fabio & Vecchi, Michela & Venturini, Francesco, 2018. "Modelling the joint impact of R&D and ICT on productivity: A frontier analysis approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(9), pages 1842-1852.
    15. Castiglione, Concetta & Infante, Davide, 2012. "ICTs and lags in technical efficiency gains. A stochastic frontier approach over a panel of Italian manufacturing firms," MPRA Paper 51071, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    17. Bonanno, Graziella, 2014. "ICT and R&D as inputs or efficiency determinants? Analysing the manufacturing Italian firms over the 2007-2009," MPRA Paper 57640, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Pedersen, Torben & Scedrova, Anna & Grecu, Alina, 2022. "The effects of IT investments and skilled labor on firms’ value added," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    19. Wen Chen, 2023. "Digital economy development, corporate social responsibility and low‐carbon innovation," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1664-1679, July.
    20. Ndubuisi, Gideon & Otioma, Chuks & Owusu, Solomon & Tetteh, Godsway Korku, 2022. "ICTs quality and technical efficiency: An empirical analysis," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(10).
    21. Concetta Castiglione & Davide Infante & Marta Zieba, 2018. "Technical efficiency in the Italian performing arts companies," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 609-638, October.
    22. Yakubu Abdul-Salam & Euan Phimister, 2017. "Efficiency Effects of Access to Information on Small-scale Agriculture: Empirical Evidence from Uganda using Stochastic Frontier and IRT Models," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(2), pages 494-517, June.
    23. Derya Findik & Aysit Tansel, 2015. "​ Intangible Investment and Technical Efficiency: The Case of Software-Intensive Manufacturing Firms in Turkey," Working Papers 2015/11, Turkish Economic Association.
    24. Won-Sik Hwang & Ho-Sung Kim, 2022. "Does the adoption of emerging technologies improve technical efficiency? Evidence from Korean manufacturing SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 627-643, August.
    25. Diego Aboal & Ezequiel Tacsir, 2018. "Innovation and productivity in services and manufacturing: the role of ICT," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(2), pages 221-241.

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