European Planning Studies

The twin green & digital transition in territories: are sustainable digital technologies enabling social, economic and environmental competitiveness?

The so-called “twin” digital and green transitions (Cooke, 2021) are two relevant processes that have an impact on territories, localities, regions and nations, with the capability to transform business, products and industries (e.g. Porter and Heppelmenn, 2014). This Special Issue demands extending this debate by pointing out the key factors and activities required for enabling a change towards a green and digital transition in regions and territories. This transition would be met by enabling micro-, meso- and macro-level changes such as changing business activities in firms, greening industries (e.g. changing regulations), removing lock-in technologies and developing ambitious regional plans that embrace all regional actors on different scales, even challenging existing governance systems (e.g. adding more civil society components).  According to Muench, Stoermer, Jensen, Asikainen, Salvi and Scapolo (2022) there are key social, technological, environmental, economic, and political barriers to overcome for the twin transitions, ensuring that the digital and green technologies reinforce each other. Overall, we need to establish the new goals to be met, the contextual factors that challenge the transition (e.g. political) and the actionable measures and policymaking for a successful change where green and digital dimensions synergistically are reinforcing each other. We need to understand the two dimensions of the twin transition and then examine how they can positive and synergistically interact.

 

Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution (I4.0), on the one hand, is based on new cyber-physical systems constituted of general-purpose technologies (e.g. IoT, Big Data or AI, among others) is now an accepted paradigm to understand business and society (e.g. Schwab, 2017). Digital technologies are transforming business, industries and products, innovation and entrepreneurship (Nambisan et al., 2019; Porter and Heppelmenn, 2014). This digitalization also impacts regions and territories through collective actions to introduce digital technologies (I4.0) into local value chains (e.g. Hervas-Oliver, 2021).   Other examples of I4.0 in regions are found in studies like those that measure the impact of AI in territories and regions from an innovation perspective basis (e.g. Doloreux and Turkina, 2021; De Propris and Bailey, 2020; Lazzeretti et al., 2023).

 

Sustainability-oriented or environmental innovations, on the other hand, are new ideas, behaviors, products and processes or technologies that contribute to achieving sustainability targets, being also named as eco-innovations or green-innovations (e.g. Rennings, 2000: 322). Applying the concept to clusters, industrial districts and regions, sustainability transition brings  a better management of global value chains, upgrading territories and their firms, bringing positive impacts in terms of performance, social and environmental targets (e.g.  Ponte et al., 2023). As Hervas-Oliver et al., (2024) points out, the analysis of sustainability and green transitions in regions, clusters and other spatially-bounded contexts requires the development of a research program for answering what needs to be changed (activities, processes, products, industries, etc.), when (under what conditions), why and how these changes can be activated for improving sustainability innovation.

These two intertwined processes reinforce each other, creating synergies that boost productivity and growth (e.g. Faggian, Marzucchi, & Montresor, 2024). For example, as Muench et al., (2022)  show, digital technologies support green activities like in the agriculture industry, where digital technologies enable precision of feed, water or fertilizers, reducing the carbon footprint and saving resources. Similarly, the Internet of Things can integrate data from farms with other sources for smart farming, where available real-time data on plant, livestock or and soil status, combined with weather forecast, would bring better and more productive decision-making support to the farmer (Idem, pp. 29).

The twin transition also entails complex and sometimes unexpected consequences for territories, particularly arising from the development of new industries within the digital sector. Local events can have global repercussions (and vice versa), especially when considering critical materials such as rare earth elements, which are essential inputs for digital products and processes. Moreover, the digital transition may hinder sustainability due to the excessive consumption of energy and raw materials associated with new digital equipment, batteries, electric vehicles, and solar technologies. These emerging technologies often require data centers, which can have unforeseen impacts on local communities. For example, battery manufacturing demands the establishment of gigafactories, which may exert additional pressure on local natural resources.

 

Integrating and cross-fertilizing different perspectives and scholarly fields and approaches (e.g. industry, managerial studies, economic geography, clusters, policymaking, regional growth, etc.) this Special Issue attempts to facilitate the integration of the topic of green and digital technologies into regional and local development. Our aim is to enrich scholarly research and support policymakers’ agendas in designing new digital and sustainability-oriented initiatives, contributing thus to improving society, the environment and the growth of countries, regions, territories and their businesses. As such, this special issue invites theoretical, empirical, and/or methodological contributions that examine the journey of regions and territories and their firms in transitioning toward new digital and green institutions, infrastructure, practices, processes and products, informing and pointing out action plans and facts to policymakers, scholars, business managers and other stakeholders. All types of research design are welcome, including case studies, qualitative and quantitative studies, conceptual inquiries or literature reviews.

 

List of Topic Areas

• Examples of twin transition in firms, industries and territories
• Clusters, regions and territories: sustainable and digital transformations
• Social, environmental and economic progress: conceptualization, barriers and enabling factors
• Digital and green transformations: real cases of firms, industries and territories.
• Artificial intelligence (IA) and regional development: firms and territories
• Industry 4.0 technologies, competitiveness and growth in regions
• Social progress, social and environmental innovation
• Sustainable development in territories: the role of collective actions
• Critical perspectives over new industries and social impacts in regions: new digital equipment such as data centers, battery manufacturing plants, rare earths, etc.
• Other related ones.

 

References

 Cooke, P. (2021),“Image and reality: ‘digital twins’ in smart factory automotive process innovation critical issues”, Regional Studies, Vol. 55 Nos 10/11, pp. 1630-1641.

De Propris, L. and Bailey, D. (2020), Industry 4.0 and Regional Transformations, Taylor and Francis, Oxfordshire, p. 276

Doloreux, D. and Turkina, E. (2021),“New path creation in the artificial intelligence industry: regional preconditions, new actors and their collective actions, and policies”, Regional Studies, Vol. 55 Nos10/11, pp.1751-1763.

Faggian, A., Marzucchi, A., & Montresor, S. (2024). Regions facing the ‘twin transition’: combining regional green and digital innovations. Regional Studies, 59(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2024.2398555

Hervás-Oliver, J.L. (2021), “Industry 4.0 in industrial districts: regional innovation policy for the Toy Valley district in Spain”, Regional Studies, Vol. 55 Nos 10/11, pp. 1775-1786.

Hervas-Oliver, JL, Juan Antonio Antonio Márquez García, García-Chamizo F., Ronald Rojas-Alvarado; Are clusters and industrial districts really driving sustainability innovation?. Competitiveness Review 29 October 2024; 34 (5): 896–915. https://doi.org/10.1108/CR-06-2024-0109

Lazzeretti, L., Domenech, R. B., Hervas-Oliver, J. L., & Innocenti, N. (2023). Artificial intelligence, big data, algorithms and Industry 4.0 in firms and clusters. European Planning Studies, 31(7), 1297–1303. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2023.2220490

Muench, S., Stoermer, E., Jensen, K., Asikainen, T., Salvi, M. and Scapolo, F., Towards a green and digital future, EUR 31075 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2022, ISBN 978-92-76-52451-9, doi:10.2760/977331, JRC129319.

Nambisan, S., Wright, M., & Feldman, M. (2019). The digital transformation of innovation and entrepreneurship: Progress, challenges and key themes. Research Policy, 48(8), 103773. https:// doi.org/ 10. 1016/ j. respol. 2019. 03. 018

Ponte, S., De Marchi, V., Bettiol, M., & Di Maria, E. (2023). The horizontal governance of environmental upgrading: Lessons from the Prosecco and Valpolicella wine value chains in Italy. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 0308518X231176553.

Porter, M. E., & Heppelmann, J. E. (2014). How smart, connected products are transforming competition. Harvard business review, 92(11), 64-88.

Rennings, K. (2000). Redefining innovation - Eco-innovation research and the contribution from ecological economics. Ecological Economics, 32(2), 319–332. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8009(99)00112-3

Schwab, K. (2017). The fourth industrial revolution. Currency.

 

Further reading:

Bansal, P., & Roth, K. (2000). Why companies go green: A model of ecological responsiveness. Academy of management journal, 43(4), 717-736.

Ratten, V. (2018). Eco-innovation and competitiveness in the Barossa Valley wine region. Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal, 28(3), 318-331.

Rennings, K. (2000). Redefining innovation - Eco-innovation research and the contribution from ecological economics. Ecological Economics, 32(2), 319–332. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8009(99)00112-3

Steinböck, N., & Trippl, M. (2023). The thorny road towards green path development: the case of bioplastics in Lower Austria. Regional Studies, Regional Science, 10(1), 735-749.

Zen, A. C., Bittencourt, B. A., Hervas-Oliver, J. L., & Rojas-Alvarado, R. (2022). Sustainability-Oriented Transition in Clusters: A Multilevel Framework from Induction. Sustainability, 14(7), 4265.