Related Research Initiatives - Digital Transformation, Sustainability, and Networks

In recent years, firms have faced a "next-generation competition" environment characterized by intense global rivalry, rapid technological change, and the emergence of platform markets. As businesses navigate the shift from digitalization to digital transformation, understanding the economic impact of Information Technology (IT) at the firm level has become increasingly crucial. This study aims to investigate the role of digital readiness in supporting firms' performance during severe and unpredictable shocks, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. We define digital readiness as the capability of firms to quickly respond to external challenges with a coherent digital strategy, using website evolution as a proxy for this readiness. By examining the Italian manufacturing sector, traditionally reliant on physical interactions and less accustomed to digital channels, we provide a clearer understanding of how firms' digital strategies affected their ability to sustain business continuity during the pandemic. Our study, based on a Continuous Difference-in-Differences approach, allows us to test whether firms with a pre-existing digital strategy were better able to mitigate losses during the crisis than companies that only adapted their digital capabilities in response to the pandemic. The study highlights the importance of forward-looking digital strategies and provides valuable insights for future research on the impact of digital transformation on business dynamics by using advanced web scraping techniques to analyze digital behavior and strategic information.

This study examines digital transformation in the B2B sector through the Actor-Resource-Activity (A-R-A) model, addressing gaps in existing research. By conducting a bibliometric analysis and systematic review of 86 articles, it identifies key themes such as challenges, opportunities, impacts on marketing and sales, supplier-buyer relationships, digital servitisation, and value-added process transformations. The study provides actionable insights for business leaders, offering best practices and a conceptual framework to guide digital transformation strategies. For researchers, it fills a gap in the literature by outlining key research areas and proposing a future research agenda, grounded in the A-R-A model for more cohesive and empirical studies.

This project focuses on promoting Non-Financial Reporting practices among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to enhance their transparency, accountability, and long-term sustainability. By encouraging responsible innovation, SMEs can adopt sustainable business practices that improve resource efficiency, risk management, and compliance with regulations. This strengthens their economic resilience and increases competitiveness in a market where sustainability is becoming a key differentiator. Additionally, the project explores how environmental innovation and entrepreneurial orientation drive continuous growth and adaptability in SMEs, ensuring they can respond to market changes and seize new opportunities. Finally, the project highlights the importance of digital transformation, data-driven decision-making, and cybersecurity, all of which boost SMEs' digital resilience and enable them to thrive in an increasingly digital economy.

Efforts to increase the granularity of corporate transactions have developed the availability of business-to-business transaction networks in various countries in recent years. This has given us a better insight into the internal dynamics of supply chain networks within a country and their interaction with global supply chains. This study examines the role of network position in determining firms' resilience to shocks within a supply chain network, focusing on manufacturing firms in Belgium. We use a detailed business-to-business transaction network to map the supply chains and derive network characteristics that capture the importance and influence of individual firms within the production system. To summarize the position of a firm in the network, we use a Graph Neural Network (GNN) that uses signal propagation mechanisms to generate embeddings. These embeddings encapsulate the complex interactions and connectivity patterns in the network.

Recognizing the endogeneity problem associated with capturing a firm's own signal in these embeddings, we introduce a simple modified version that isolates the influence of a firm's neighbors by capturing only how news spreads in a firm's neighborhood. This approach allows us to understand how a firm's local and global connectivity contributes to its resilience to systemic shocks. By analyzing the relationship between these network-derived characteristics and firm-level outcomes in times of economic disruption, we provide new insights into the network structures that underpin the resilience of supply chains. Our findings are relevant for both policy and practice as they highlight the critical role of network position in mitigating the impact of shocks on firms and the broader economy.

Our joint project with Hylke Vandenbussche (KU Leuven) was approved by the National Bank of Belgium, ensuring access to B2B transaction data.