Abstract

The link between Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and productivity has generated considerable interest among academics and practitioners in recent years. In the 1980s and in the early 1990s, empirical research generally did not find relevant productivity improvements associated with ICT investments. At the same time, information technology is widely acknowledged as the key factor behind the US productivity revival. By the mid-1990s it has revolutionized both firms' activity and household lifetime, delivering higher levels of efficiency and welfare. The paper highlights the broad theme of smart systems on a mainly organizational and economic level. In order to fully understand the relationship between smart systems and productivity it is necessary identify the relationships that unite these resources with the activities of the business processes. In a firm perspective the simply availability of digital smart systems does not necessarily lead to success. On the contrary, it requires that firms accompany digital resources with the development of best organizational practices. Digital technologies allow companies to improve productivity in two ways: by making hard improvements that dramatically increase the efficiency of "smart" machine and processes, and by making soft improvements that increase the efficiency of people working together.