A three-pronged approach to the digitalization–innovation–sustainable rural development nexus among Italian farms

Recent studies have pointed out how digital innovations may boost more sustainable farming systems and have positive impacts on supporting the trajectories of smart rural development. The present work aims to analyze possible connections among digitalization, innovation and sustainable rural development through a three-pronged nexus thinking approach. This link is examined from a 'discrete context' perspective, by assuming heterogeneity (which means that differences among farms may emerge in the process of adopting innovation) as a characteristic in adopting innovation and by investigating the potential impacts on local rural development. The empirical analysis draws on secondary sources, taking farms from the last Italian census of agriculture into account. Through a multivariate analysis, farms are grouped into homogenous clusters according to different types of nexuses. The results reveal a very interesting reality characterized by high levels of territorial heterogeneity in the adoption of digital and innovative solutions, bringing about scattered geographies of nexuses in the Italian farming system.