The digitalization of products and services is becoming a vital element of business processes. Its impact on company performance however, is not yet fully realized. In this study, the Italian startups are studied to determine their digital behaviour. The use of intra-organizational and inter-organizational electronic infrastructures is considered. The results of the manual analysis (Steps 3 and 4) are triangulated using the computer-aided analysis of Steps 4 and 5 to determine the factors that affect the digital behavior of Italian startups.
The data analysis highlights that on average Italian startups have adopted 1.23 digital infrastructures between organizations and 1.75 intra-organizational digital infrastructures. It is also evident that the utilization of these digital infrastructures is very limited as, on average, around 80percent of the examined Italian startups adopt no more than two of the inter-organizational digital networks considered and 68% of the analyzed startups have adopted no more than one of the intra-organizational digital infrastructures.
These results suggest that a italian startups optimizing operations with digital tools large majority of Italian startups adopt a digital follower approach rather than an advanced digital leader style. The primary reason could be that, despite their participation in the Startup Act policy initiative, they aren’t yet mature enough to adopt digital leadership strategies. It is for this reason that it is suggested to the government that they adopt new policies aimed at promoting the digitalization of the Italian Startup Ecosystem. This could include as an example, public financial incentives to digitalise startups.