District effects and sustainability: web-based text mining evidence on sustainability signaling in the Italian textile industry

Purpose This study aims to investigate how industrial district membership influences firms’ sustainability strategies, distinguishing between substantive practices (certifications) and environmental and social communication on their websites. More precisely, the authors test whether a district effect is associated with stronger sustainability engagement and greater alignment between actions and communication. Design/methodology/approach The authors constructed a sample of 2568 Italian textile firms, of which 963 are located in textile-district areas, using the AIDA database and the Attività economiche (ATECO) classification. Sustainability-related textual content was collected from corporate websites through large-scale web scraping and analyzed using a custom dictionary combined with natural language processing techniques. This process generated three indicators: environmental sustainability index (ESI), social sustainability index (SSI) and certification count index (CCI). To address selection bias, the authors applied propensity score matching with nearest-neighbor matching at multiple ratios and industry granularity levels, estimating the average treatment effect on the treated for district versus nondistrict firms. Findings Results show that district firms exhibit significantly higher certification intensity (CCI) and greater environmental communication (ESI), while social communication (SSI) effects are detectable only under finer industry granularity. District firms tend to align sustainability practices with communication, but some of them instead under-communicate their sustainability endeavor. These patterns confirm that relational governance and dense local networks may reduce the need for formal communication despite substantive engagement. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature on district effects and on sustainability in fashion industries, providing novel evidence on the dual role of industrial districts as enablers of sustainability adoption and selective communication and highlighting the importance of local embeddedness.