The work investigates the potential use of corporate websites as an alternative data source for research in innovation studies. Traditionally, research in this field relies on data gathered from financial statements, patents or surveys. Our study bridges the gap between standard economic data of firms and web-based data, contributing to the ongoing debate with an innovative approach based on unconventional data. Unlike the predominant focus in the existing literature on the linguistic content of a web page, we propose the usage of HTML tags too. The exploratory study has been conducted on a sample of Italian companies. The results support the hypothesis that innovative firms tend to build their corporate websites differently.
Bottai, C., Crosato, L., Domenech, J., Guerzoni, M., Liberati, C. (2025). Unconventional Data and Innovation: Are Innovative SMEs’ Web Pages Different?. In A. Pollice, P. Mariani (a cura di), Methodological and Applied Statistics and Demography I SIS 2024, Short Papers, Plenary and Specialized Sessions (pp. 123-127). Springer [10.1007/978-3-031-64346-0_21].
Unconventional Data and Innovation: Are Innovative SMEs’ Web Pages Different?
Bottai, C.;Guerzoni, M;Liberati, C
2025
Abstract
The work investigates the potential use of corporate websites as an alternative data source for research in innovation studies. Traditionally, research in this field relies on data gathered from financial statements, patents or surveys. Our study bridges the gap between standard economic data of firms and web-based data, contributing to the ongoing debate with an innovative approach based on unconventional data. Unlike the predominant focus in the existing literature on the linguistic content of a web page, we propose the usage of HTML tags too. The exploratory study has been conducted on a sample of Italian companies. The results support the hypothesis that innovative firms tend to build their corporate websites differently.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
