Smart Specialisation Strategy (s3), business behaviours and territories: a statistical analysis of environmental and digital choices based on the Istat permanent census of enterprises

Abstract

The Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) guides regional policies towards innovation-driven investments aligned with territorial strengths. Despite the widespread adoption of S3, empirical evidence on how the attitudes of firms influence investment choices within regional specialisation domains remains limited. This study addresses this gap by analysing non-linear relationships between firms' environmental awareness, technological modernisation, and investment behaviours. The analysis utilises data from the 2022 ISTAT Permanent Census of Enterprises, which developed a composite index to identify specialised firms by territorial and sectoral criteria.

To assess the relationships between environmental sensitivity and sustainable investments, as well as technological modernisation attitudes and digitalisation investments, Spearman’s rank correlations were calculated to determine relationships at both the regional and specialisation-domain levels, as well as cluster analyses.

The findings highlight the potential of differentiated environmental and digital interventions tailored to sector-specific contexts. Future studies might investigate causal dynamics via longitudinal analyses to gain deeper insights into these relationships.