Unveiling the Behaviour: Analysing Isomorphic Forces in the Emilia-Romagna Industrial Ecosystem

This study investigates non-financial accounting novelties within the “ECOSISTER: Ecosystem for Sustainable Transition in Emilia-Romagna” project, aligned with and funded by the “NextGeneration EU” plan. Sustainability is still an urgent challenge for organisations increasingly compelled to acknowledge the significance of integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into their operations. In addition, accounting for non-financial purposes often appears as a voluntary, self-crafted practice that organisations develop to gain competitive advantage and visibility. In light of this, the European Union (EU) Taxonomy emerges as one of the latest methodologies the EU defines for accounting and measuring industrial ecosystems toward the transition to sustainable activities. This work aims to examine whether the Emilia-Romagna regional industrial ecosystems recognise and align to such new metrics. We aim to explore organisational and managerial implications for enterprises and how these regulations influence their actions. Contributing to developing and interpreting an extensive survey questionnaire intersecting various academic disciplines, this work draws on the literature based on isomorphism and institutional theories. We design a framework to examine the three isomorphic forces: normative, coercive, and mimetic. The outcomes of this work are twofold: (1) to qualitatively describe the existing research interconnecting isomorphic forces, information technology, and non-financial accountability practices; (2) to recognise the main drivers that could contribute to targeting the Italian production ecosystem toward sustainable transition. Hence, this preliminary study lays the groundwork for examining a large-scale survey, building theoretical and methodological foundations for examining the “alignment” of Italian’s industrial ecosystems to the EU Taxonomy.