Italy is facing a structural decline in the productive sectors that have been the engine of growth in recent years. The emergence and/or development of other economic activities that could reverse this situation have not been observed to date. Industrial policy is sustaining the production system, reconciling economic and socio-environmental conditions, of which the sustainability of technical progress is particularly important. The recent pandemic has rendered this scenario more complex because it has accelerated the contraction of manufacturing and the spending power of individuals and families. The advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution has affected the European and Italian production systems in very different ways. There is still no consensus on when the Fourth Industrial Revolution began or whether it entirely overlaps with the Industry 4.0 paradigm. This concerns the factory of the future, based on the adoption of intelligent production and the result of enabling and operational technologies. Some of the objectives of Industry 4.0 are: to achieve productivity gains, encourage the formation of collaborative working systems and optimise the inter-organisational relationships of industrial eco-systems. The digitalisation processes imply that the system adopts the individual rules, since the knowledge embedded in the technology is dogmatic in nature. This necessarily implies a very high degree of acceptance, adherence and conformity of individual processes to those required by the general rules. The risks associated with the pervasive nature of digitalisation and interconnection processes also produce negative effects, including the strengthening of concentration without centralisation, both for processes and products. Digitalisation is also profoundly changing the job market. Indeed, advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning also generate automation of the production process through the introduction of robots that function, learn and react like humans, to the extent that they can replace them. Given the inadequacy of their skills, less skilled workers could have less incentive to improve. The increasing use of information technologies in the labour market, the possibility to automate a growing range of tasks and the opportunity to provide skills through online platforms have different economic and social implications for users. Consequently, differentiated approaches are required. New digital technologies create new professions and new ways to deliver skills to the market, while online platforms bring about major changes, especially in certain sectors, thus facilitating self-employment. Digital platforms reorganise a wide range of markets, employment relationships and contracts, and create and capture value (Kenney and Zysman, 2016). This then raises questions about the social protection and rights of employees, as well as their ability to access and afford the necessary education and training. Indeed, if the proportion of workers whose main activity is carried out on online platforms were to increase, the relationship between workers and employers would become more fluid, reducing involvement of the entrepreneur in training policies and human contact. The contributions in this volume focus on all these aspects of digitalisation. The book brings together the results of investigations by researchers from different Italian universities within the project “The Digitalisation of Firms. New perspectives in the era of Industry 4.0” at the University of Foggia. The aim is to analyse how technology, innovation and digitalisation have changed the various economic sectors, with a particular focus on Italy where the institutional factor still plays a highly significant role.

La trasformazione digitale delle imprese: strumenti attuali e prospettive future (capitolo 5)

D'Uggento, A. M;Manca, F
2021-01-01

Abstract

Italy is facing a structural decline in the productive sectors that have been the engine of growth in recent years. The emergence and/or development of other economic activities that could reverse this situation have not been observed to date. Industrial policy is sustaining the production system, reconciling economic and socio-environmental conditions, of which the sustainability of technical progress is particularly important. The recent pandemic has rendered this scenario more complex because it has accelerated the contraction of manufacturing and the spending power of individuals and families. The advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution has affected the European and Italian production systems in very different ways. There is still no consensus on when the Fourth Industrial Revolution began or whether it entirely overlaps with the Industry 4.0 paradigm. This concerns the factory of the future, based on the adoption of intelligent production and the result of enabling and operational technologies. Some of the objectives of Industry 4.0 are: to achieve productivity gains, encourage the formation of collaborative working systems and optimise the inter-organisational relationships of industrial eco-systems. The digitalisation processes imply that the system adopts the individual rules, since the knowledge embedded in the technology is dogmatic in nature. This necessarily implies a very high degree of acceptance, adherence and conformity of individual processes to those required by the general rules. The risks associated with the pervasive nature of digitalisation and interconnection processes also produce negative effects, including the strengthening of concentration without centralisation, both for processes and products. Digitalisation is also profoundly changing the job market. Indeed, advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning also generate automation of the production process through the introduction of robots that function, learn and react like humans, to the extent that they can replace them. Given the inadequacy of their skills, less skilled workers could have less incentive to improve. The increasing use of information technologies in the labour market, the possibility to automate a growing range of tasks and the opportunity to provide skills through online platforms have different economic and social implications for users. Consequently, differentiated approaches are required. New digital technologies create new professions and new ways to deliver skills to the market, while online platforms bring about major changes, especially in certain sectors, thus facilitating self-employment. Digital platforms reorganise a wide range of markets, employment relationships and contracts, and create and capture value (Kenney and Zysman, 2016). This then raises questions about the social protection and rights of employees, as well as their ability to access and afford the necessary education and training. Indeed, if the proportion of workers whose main activity is carried out on online platforms were to increase, the relationship between workers and employers would become more fluid, reducing involvement of the entrepreneur in training policies and human contact. The contributions in this volume focus on all these aspects of digitalisation. The book brings together the results of investigations by researchers from different Italian universities within the project “The Digitalisation of Firms. New perspectives in the era of Industry 4.0” at the University of Foggia. The aim is to analyse how technology, innovation and digitalisation have changed the various economic sectors, with a particular focus on Italy where the institutional factor still plays a highly significant role.
2021
978-88-921-3842-1
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11586/366267
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