Digitalization and sustainable development in the I4.0 scenario: a comparison between EU and Italian industrial companies

The advent of the I4.0 defined the implementation of the digital technologies for the industrial production, in the meanwhile this revolution determined a business transformation for the organizations involving many hot topics. Among them, the sustainability is often faced by many authors in relation to the I4.0 new instruments. Through an empirical research, this thesis wants to deepen the relationship between the adoption of the innovative technologies and the sustainable development of the companies in the industrial sector. The tools used are R&D intensity for collecting data in terms of digital innovation and ESG score for understanding the performance of companies in sustainability. After collecting the results, data about Italian companies will be compared to the ones about EU companies to understand if industrial companies in Italy are on track to digitalization and sustainable development in the I4.0 scenario.