Firms’ eco-innovation and Industry 4.0 technologies in urban and rural areas
研究了欧洲企业生态创新和采用工业4.0技术的倾向如何随城乡区位变化，发现农村企业生态创新能力更强但数字化倾向更低，而城市区位增强了数字技术对生态创新的促进作用。
We investigate the extent to which firms’ propensity to eco-innovate, adopt Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies and leverage them to eco-innovate varies with their location. We maintain that urban firms should be more prone to eco-innovate and adopt I4.0 technologies than rural ones, and more capable to make the latter functional to the former. Using a large sample of European firms, we test and confirm these hypotheses only partially. Firms in rural areas display a higher capacity to eco-innovate notwithstanding their lower digital propensity. However, an urban location reinforces the eco-innovative impact of digital technologies, irrespectively from its size.