The digitalization of products and services is becoming an integral element of business processes. The impact it has on performance of companies, however, is not yet fully realized. In this study, the Italian startup community is examined to discover their digital habits. The adoption of intra-organizational as well inter-organizational electronic infrastructures is analyzed. The results of the manual analysis (Steps 3 and 4) are triangulated using the computer-assisted analysis of Steps 4 and 5, to determine the factors that influence digital behavior of Italian startups.

The data analysis shows that, on average, Italian startups have adopted 1.23 digital L’effetto trasformativo della tecnologia sull’accuratezza della due diligence infrastructures between organizations and 1.75 intra-organizational digital infrastructures. It is also clear that the use of digital infrastructures by Italian startups is sporadic. On average just two inter-organizational systems are adopted and 68% of the analyzed startups have only adopted one intra-organizational network.

These findings suggest that a large majority of Italian startup companies exhibit digital follower behavior rather than developing digital leader behavior. The main reason for this might be the fact that, despite their participation in the Startup Act policy initiative, they are not yet mature enough to be able to implement digital leadership strategies. In this regard, it is recommended to implement new policies to support the digitalization of the Italian startup ecosystem. This could include, for example, public financial incentives aimed at accelerating the digitalization of startups.