The Effects of Industry 4.0 for Firms and Territories: Introducing the Special Issue

The paper introduces the Special Issue focused on exploring the adoption paths of Industry 4.0 technologies and the implications for firms, clusters, and regions. The five contributions provide relevant insights on the topic through multiple theoretical and empirical lenses. It emerges that Industry 4.0 technologies may positively affect the innovation trajectories of firms and clusters as well as the competitiveness of regions. Emerging research is promising in suggesting that there could be alternative – and peculiar – processes of Industry 4.0 adoption also based on the characteristics of the local (geographical or organizational) context, connecting it with the global perspective and offering the possibility to give value to the heterogeneity of context