The research presented here is inspired by the need to identify the degree and intensity of innovation in the private companies located in the Ferrara province. The aim is to provide the public institution with an information set on the innovative positioning of the companies active in the province territory. This aim, in the present work, is pursued focusing on the information and communications technologies (ICT). Some of the relevant issues addressed by the international debate on ICT are confirmed in the answers by the interviewed companies: capability and innovation, difficulties and slow adoption and use of ICT.
In the study, the ICT are considered as general purpose technologies, which once adopted can stimulate innovation, increase the firm knowledge base, and consequently contribute to improve its performance. The main contribution of these technologies is to enable new ways of production combined with new systems of work, the re-designing of organization, the re-engineering of production processes and of the firm management. The whole of these processes generates substantial productivity increases.
Causal relationships are complicated by the fact that, as technologies are getting more complex and knowledge based, their adoption and full exploitation depend on a wide base of knowledge and on relevant economic resources. Only highly profitable companies have such resources. Finally, in examining the ICT diffusion, effectiveness and efficiency at the firm level, technology complementarities emerge as critical, with respect to both specific components of the production process and the human resources involved by the ICT use.