The digitalization of services and products is becoming a vital element of business processes. Its impact on business performance, however, is not yet fully realized. In this study the Italian startup community is examined to determine their digital behavior. In particular, the adoption of intra-organizational and inter-organizational digital infrastructures is considered. The results of the manual analysis (Steps 3 and 4) are compared to the computer-aided analysis of Steps 4 and 5 to determine the factors that influence digital behavior of Italian startups.

The analysis of data shows that, on an average, Italian startups use 1.23 inter-organizational digital infrastructures and 1.75 intra-organizational digital infrastructures. It can also be seen that the use of these digital infrastructures is very limited as, on average, around 90% of the reviewed Italian startups do not use more than two of the inter-organizational digital infrastructures considered and 68% of the analyzed startups have adopted no more than one of the intra-organizational digital infrastructures.

These findings suggest adslwireless biz check here for updates that a vast majority of Italian startups exhibit a digital follower behavior rather than developing digital leader behavior. The main reason may be due to the fact that, despite being included in the Startup Act policy initiative, they are not yet mature enough for digital leadership strategies. For this reason, it is suggested that the government introduces new policies aimed at supporting the digitalisation of the Italian startup ecosystem. This could include, among other things, public financial incentives to encourage digitalisation of startups.