Alena Myshko (p)

Stefania Scrofani

The global challenges, such as climate change and food insecurity among others, require the revision and re-composition of economies and supply chains at large, as well as search for new ways to adapt each industry’s process, and agriculture is no exception. One of the ways to address the consequences of this dramatic impact is deployment of smart and digital technologies in the agricultural sector, the agri-food in particular. Smart and 4.0 technologies, on the one hand, could help firms increase their productivity and their competitiveness in general; on the other hand, they allow for sustaining profit-making with the improvement of workers’ conditions, the reduction of emissions and environmental impacts on fields and production plants, reducing the overall footprint of the industry. According to the European Commission, the implementation of digital technologies in agriculture will enable increased economic and environmental performance and environmental sustainability, as well as competitiveness of the EU digital supply industry, improved working conditions and increased transparency. Moreover, a combination of the new digital tools with the already integrated automated technologies is supposed to support farmers to be more precise with inputs while enhancing their knowledge of agro-ecological conditions. The incorporation of digital strategy in economic activities, including the agricultural sector, has been invented and guided by several policies on the European level, in particular the EU Green Deal. While the policy initiatives largely contribute to expansion of sustainability in industries through digitalisation, there are various factors influencing the local practical implications of policy initiatives. Our research focuses on the role of institutional actors and factors in the development of digital strategy within agricultural sector. In particular, it investigates the variety of socio-economic factors, which enable or, on the contrary, limit the technological application. The research utilises and synthesise, on the one hand, the institutional approach (from economic sociology and institutional economics), and, on the other hand, the three sustainability pillars (economic, environmental, and social) framework. This synthetic conceptual framework allows not only to analyse the pathways between applications of specific technologies and their input in sustainability dimensions but also the institutional context of those applications. The methodology is based on systematic literature review and document analysis regarding the adoption of specific digital technologies and evaluation of their impact on operations and networks. In the sphere of policy making, this research can advice the development of digital strategies for agribusiness regarding the existing resources, needs and predicted outcomes.

Wen-Chung Guo (p)

Alena Myshko

This study aims to establish a spatial oligopoly model to analyze the competition between online and offline economies in price-regulated markets, particularly focusing on the impact on quality competition and social welfare. Motivated by the increasing competition that traditional regulated markets like healthcare, television media, education, and finance face against emerging online services such as telemedicine, online streaming, online education, and internet banking, the research investigates how this rivalry, fostered by digital transformation, not only creates regulatory discrepancies but also raises numerous policy issues. The study explores how quality competition in these regulated markets evolves in response to online competition, examining whether market quality competition can achieve societal goals and the effect on socially optimal regulated prices. Initially, the research will analyze the quality competition faced by two price-regulated physical firms against an unregulated online firm, providing insights into the equilibrium of quality competition, the determination of socially optimal regulated prices, and the impact on social welfare. This research contributes to existing literature by advancing theoretical development in spatial oligopoly models and incorporating online-offline competition considerations in the context of digital transformation. It also aims to discuss theoretical predictions of the model, their empirical verification, and implications for competition policy, while extending its scope to include mixed oligopoly models, network effects, elastic demand, and other spatial models.

Tommaso Cigognetti (p), Federica Rossi

Wen-Chung Guo

The rise of digitalisation and the growth of Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e-commerce have transformed the distribution of goods. This has prompted cities, regions, and logistics providers to develop strategies for more efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly home delivery systems. Besides, the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly increased the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e-commerce, and some countries, more than others, have experienced a huge rise.

The propensity to consume is correlated with the customers' gender, income, and educational attainment, as has been shown since the 2000s. Additional spatial and geographical information is needed to completely comprehend their profile. There are two primary theories about this matter, which have left the scientific debate open: (i) the efficiency hypothesis and (ii) the innovation diffusion hypothesis (Anderson et al. 2003). According to the first, the reason e-commerce is more widespread in cities is that people who earn more money and have more education are more receptive to new ideas. Conversely, the second one confirms that e-commerce usage is more widespread in rural areas.

Within this context, the present study explores the geographical dynamics of B2C e-commerce consumers in Italy in the period before (2019) and during (2020, 2021) and after (2022) the COVID-19 pandemic, when the B2C e-commerce consumers grew significantly (+57%). To reach this goal, the “Aspetti della vita quotidiana” survey by the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) for the years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 is analysed and descriptive statistics and geo-referenced mapping are developed. This annual survey covers a total of more than 50.000 residents in private households.

The results of the descriptive statistics and geo-referenced mapping, comparing the consumer propensity of Italians before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, show the changing geography of the B2C e-commerce consumers in Italy, outlining the renewed attractiveness of non-urban areas.

Stefania Scrofani (p), Andrea Mina, Elena Cefis

Tommaso Cigognetti

Digitalization has proved to have a critical impact on firms and society. Geography has emerged as a key factor in understanding the diffusion of innovation, facilitating direct communication and thereby enhancing the adoption and spread of digital technologies. Alongside geographical factors, organizational factors, specifically organizations' resources, innovativeness and systems, are pivotal in driving the diffusion process and adoption decisions. This paper aims to analyze the geographic spread of digitalization within Italian Municipalities’ public administrations and the effect that organizational factors, specifically the human capital of the public administrations’ workforce and the characteristics of the mayor, have on digitalization’s speed. By using Bayesian spatial survival models with time-varying data on the use of the e-payment service provider (PagoPA) for 6911 Italian municipalities between the years 2012 and 2021, we find evidence of strong geographical heterogeneity in the diffusion of digitalization and in the factors that affected it. The findings reveal that digital technologies initially permeate larger cities, following a hierarchical diffusion model, before gradually diffusing to smaller neighboring centers. While factors related to human capital show in general limited influence on adoption decisions, the proportion of full-time public administration personnel and workforce age prove to be influential only in slower-adopting regions. Moreover, a change in mayoral leadership, marking the start of a new term, tends to accelerate digital adoption, except for slower-adopting regions. These results highlight the insufficient level of training in the workforce of Italian municipalities’ public administration, especially in the slower-adopting regions, making them rely on intrinsic characteristics of their personnel, such as age, to facilitate the digital transformation and hampering the proactive efforts of newly appointed mayors.