Teleworking during the Covid-19 Crisis in Italy: Evidence and Tentative Interpretations

The paper investigates the determinants and discusses the consequences of the switch towards Italian high-tech firms’ teleworking due to the COVID-19 crisis. Teleworking is important to reduce traffic congestion and increase the sustainability of cities, and as such, it is important to understand wh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2021-02, Vol.13 (4), p.2147
Main Authors: Tokarchuk, Oksana, Gabriele, Roberto, Neglia, Giorgio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Crises
Economic activity
Employees
Endowment
Environmental changes
Hypotheses
Management by objectives
Medical research
Office automation
Organizational aspects
Pandemics
Sustainability
Telecommuting
Traffic congestion
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Summary:The paper investigates the determinants and discusses the consequences of the switch towards Italian high-tech firms’ teleworking due to the COVID-19 crisis. Teleworking is important to reduce traffic congestion and increase the sustainability of cities, and as such, it is important to understand what helps the successful transition of firms to telework. COVID-19 crisis represents a natural experiment that allows studying organizational ability to adapt to unexpected environmental changes rapidly. The study is based on a survey conducted in mid-April 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown among Italian manufacturing firms’ managers in high-tech sectors. The final sample is composed of 179 observations. Using path analysis, we model the organizational e-readiness as a mediator of the firm’s technological and organizational characteristics in the rate of adoption of teleworking. Teleworking is also modeled as dependent on human resources and from the exogenous shock represented by COVID-19 lockdown. While teleworking has been imposed by COVID-19, organizational readiness plays a key role in shaping the rate of teleworking adoption during emergencies.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su13042147