Digitalization and sustainability are among the most hyped and overworked concepts characterizing nowadays society. On the one hand, the dramatic consequences generated by the economic crisis that started back in 2008 are still affecting the global economy and increasing social inequalities. At the same time, environmental concerns such as global warming and pollution are deeply affecting the welfare and productivity of countries, while harming world’s biodiversity. On the other hand, digitalization is a mega-trend that is increasingly being embraced by firms, which try to innovate themselves in order to grasp unprecedented opportunities brought by the digital era. In such a context, a key question is arising among researchers, governments and corporations: is digitalization a force able to either drive or converge the world towards sustainable development? Given the relevance of the aforementioned question, this thesis aims to investigate the intersection between digitalization and sustainability. In particular, the goal is to figure out if and how digitalization is impacting sustainability, defined following the 2030 Agenda and its 17 SDGs. The literature highlights a high immaturity degree of this innovative field of study, with major issues and gaps to be solved to achieve the objective set. For these reasons, the thesis proposes a new framework of analysis to study the impacts digitalization generates on sustainability. The framework adopts an holistic approach towards impacts assessment and combines – under a single perspective – digitalization, sustainability, sustainability assessment (SA) methodologies and a process to gather information needed for the assessment itself. It adopts an innovative perspective of analysis as it conceives the firm as the propellant of digitalization and embraces the concept of business model innovation by assessing main changes brought by digitalization in the entire company’s business ecosystem. The framework is tested to evaluate its effectiveness in the impacts assessment and expand the existing knowledge regarding digitalization impacts on sustainability. To accomplish this result, the methodology followed is based on a case study in the food industry (i.e. IBM Food Trust), with blockchain its underlying enabling digital technology. Information gathered comes both form primary (i.e. multiple interviews to experts in the food industry, blockchain technology, IBM and sustainability) and secondary (i.e. databases and search engines) sources and has been elaborated, analysed and transformed to accomplish all the steps set by the framework. Results obtained show that blockchain has the potential to impact sustainability in all its dimensions. The iterative process established by the framework for information gathering enabled to pinpoint major sources of impact. In particular, the sources of positive impact turn out to be: small farmers support, food waste reduction, smart contracts, tackling illegal practices, reduced role of intermediaries and equality in design. Instead, negative impacts are expected to come from energy consumption, digital divide concerns and the threat of monopoly in service provision. The application of the GADD methodology for SA allowed to transform these impacts into a numerical evaluation: blockchain solutions in the food industry turn out to better perform in the governance (score: 80%), ethical (score: 74%) and economic (score: 68%) dimensions, ensure average results in the ecological (score: 62%) and social (score: 59%) dimensions, while show negative impacts on the cultural (score: 38%) dimension. Regarding the framework, its application to the case study highlighted the capability to naturally extend the analysis of impacts from a specific case (i.e. a company that adopts a blockchain-enabled solution in the food industry) to the generalization at technology and industry level (i.e. blockchain in the Food industry). This happens thanks to the approach proposed that systematically analyses business ecosystem impacts with the aim to translate them into sustainability-related implications.
Digitalizzazione e sostenibilità si configurano come due tra i mega-trend più rilevanti e discussi dalla società moderna. Da un lato, le drammatiche conseguenze generate dalla crisi economica del 2008 stanno tutt’ora danneggiando l’economia mondiale, portando alla creazione di incredibili diseguaglianze sociali. Allo stesso tempo, il surriscaldamento globale e l’inquinamento producono cataclismi climatici di magnitudine e frequenza sempre maggiore, con conseguenze gravissime sia sulla popolazione che sulla biodiversità della Terra. Dall’altra parte, le imprese continuano ad innovarsi al fine di sfruttare le incredibili opportunità presentate dalle tecnologie digitali. In questo contesto, il mondo accademico, governativo ed imprenditoriale è sempre più interessato a capire se, e in quale misura, la digitalizzazione sia in grado di spostare o far convergere il mondo verso uno sviluppo sostenibile. La rilevanza di questo quesito nasconde l’obiettivo ultimo della tesi, ovvero investigare l’intersezione tra digitalizzazione e sostenibilità. Nel dettaglio, l’obiettivo è capire se e come la digitalizzazione impatti la sostenibilità, definita seguendo la “2030 Agenda” delle Nazioni Unite ed i suoi 17 SDGs. L’analisi della letteratura sottolinea come questo ambito di studio sia altamente immaturo e presenti delle sostanziali limitazioni. Per questi motivi, la tesi propone un nuovo framework di analisi per studiare gli impatti della digitalizzazione sulla sostenibilità. Il framework adotta un approccio olistico nell’identificazione degli impatti e unisce – sotto un’unica prospettiva – digitalizzazione, sostenibilità, metodologie per la sua valutazione (SA methodologies) ed un processo per raccogliere le informazioni necessarie alla valutazione stessa. L’innovatività dell’approccio risiede nel concepire l’azienda come il motore della digitalizzazione e, quindi, nell’includere il concetto di business model innovation all’interno dell’analisi al fine di evidenziare i principali cambiamenti generati dalla digitalizzazione sull’intero “sistema impresa”. Il framework viene testato per valutare la sua efficacia nell’identificare e valutare gli impatti della digitalizzazione sulla sostenibilità. Per il raggiungimento di tale obiettivo, la metodologia seguita è basata su un caso di studio nell’industria agroalimentare (i.e. IBM Food Trust), dove la blockchain è la tecnologia digitale abilitante. Le informazioni raccolte sono sia primarie (i.e. multiple interviste ad esperti nell’industria agroalimentare, blockchain, IBM e sostenibilità) che secondarie (i.e. database e motori di ricerca) e sono state poi analizzate, elaborate e trasformate per compiere tutti i passi suggeriti dal framework. I risultati conseguiti mostrano come la blockchain sia una tecnologia digitale con la potenzialità di impattare tutte le dimensioni della sostenibilità nel settore agroalimentare. Il processo iterativo creato nel framework per ottenere le informazioni necessarie ha permesso l’individuazione delle aree principali di impatto. Nel dettaglio, le fonti di impatto positivo evidenziate dall’analisi sono: supporto ai piccoli proprietari terrieri, riduzione dello spreco di cibo, smart contracts, opposizione alle pratiche illegali, riduzione del potere degli intermediari e equalità nel design. Invece, le fonti di impatto negativo provengono dal consumo di energia, dal “digital divide” e dalla potenziale creazione di monopoli da parte dei fornitori del servizio. L’applicazione della metodologia GADD ha infine permesso di trasformare queste aree di macro impatto in una valutazione numerica: le soluzioni blockchain applicate al settore agroalimentare sembrano quindi ottenere migliori prestazioni nelle dimensioni governance (80%), etica (74%) ed economica (68%), una discreta valutazione nelle dimensioni ecologica (62%) e sociale (59%), mentre un risultato negativo è atteso per la dimensione culturale (38%). Per quanto riguarda il framework, la sua applicazione al caso di studio ha messo in luce la capacità di estendere l’analisi degli impatti in maniera naturale da un caso specifico (i.e. un’azienda che adotta una soluzione blockchain nel settore agroalimentare) alla generalizzazione a livello di tecnologia e industria (i.e. blockchain e settore agroalimentare). Questo è dovuto all’approccio olistico proposto nel framework che analizza sistematicamente i “business ecosystem impacts” con l’obiettivo di tradurli in implicazioni inerenti la sfera sostenibile.
Digitalization and sustainability : a framework of analysis and a case study in the food industry
DELPERO, NICOLÒ
2018/2019
Abstract
Digitalization and sustainability are among the most hyped and overworked concepts characterizing nowadays society. On the one hand, the dramatic consequences generated by the economic crisis that started back in 2008 are still affecting the global economy and increasing social inequalities. At the same time, environmental concerns such as global warming and pollution are deeply affecting the welfare and productivity of countries, while harming world’s biodiversity. On the other hand, digitalization is a mega-trend that is increasingly being embraced by firms, which try to innovate themselves in order to grasp unprecedented opportunities brought by the digital era. In such a context, a key question is arising among researchers, governments and corporations: is digitalization a force able to either drive or converge the world towards sustainable development? Given the relevance of the aforementioned question, this thesis aims to investigate the intersection between digitalization and sustainability. In particular, the goal is to figure out if and how digitalization is impacting sustainability, defined following the 2030 Agenda and its 17 SDGs. The literature highlights a high immaturity degree of this innovative field of study, with major issues and gaps to be solved to achieve the objective set. For these reasons, the thesis proposes a new framework of analysis to study the impacts digitalization generates on sustainability. The framework adopts an holistic approach towards impacts assessment and combines – under a single perspective – digitalization, sustainability, sustainability assessment (SA) methodologies and a process to gather information needed for the assessment itself. It adopts an innovative perspective of analysis as it conceives the firm as the propellant of digitalization and embraces the concept of business model innovation by assessing main changes brought by digitalization in the entire company’s business ecosystem. The framework is tested to evaluate its effectiveness in the impacts assessment and expand the existing knowledge regarding digitalization impacts on sustainability. To accomplish this result, the methodology followed is based on a case study in the food industry (i.e. IBM Food Trust), with blockchain its underlying enabling digital technology. Information gathered comes both form primary (i.e. multiple interviews to experts in the food industry, blockchain technology, IBM and sustainability) and secondary (i.e. databases and search engines) sources and has been elaborated, analysed and transformed to accomplish all the steps set by the framework. Results obtained show that blockchain has the potential to impact sustainability in all its dimensions. The iterative process established by the framework for information gathering enabled to pinpoint major sources of impact. In particular, the sources of positive impact turn out to be: small farmers support, food waste reduction, smart contracts, tackling illegal practices, reduced role of intermediaries and equality in design. Instead, negative impacts are expected to come from energy consumption, digital divide concerns and the threat of monopoly in service provision. The application of the GADD methodology for SA allowed to transform these impacts into a numerical evaluation: blockchain solutions in the food industry turn out to better perform in the governance (score: 80%), ethical (score: 74%) and economic (score: 68%) dimensions, ensure average results in the ecological (score: 62%) and social (score: 59%) dimensions, while show negative impacts on the cultural (score: 38%) dimension. Regarding the framework, its application to the case study highlighted the capability to naturally extend the analysis of impacts from a specific case (i.e. a company that adopts a blockchain-enabled solution in the food industry) to the generalization at technology and industry level (i.e. blockchain in the Food industry). This happens thanks to the approach proposed that systematically analyses business ecosystem impacts with the aim to translate them into sustainability-related implications.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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Descrizione: Digitalization and sustainability: a framework of analysis and a case study in the food industry
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/151764