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• Industry 4.0 embraces technological, organisational and human aspects. • Intermediary organisations are pivotal within Industry 4.0 innovation ecosystems. • German competence centres (CCs) steer the transition of SMEs towards Industry 4.0. • We conceptualise German CCs as systemic meta-intermediaries. • Systemic meta-intermediaries act to accelerate sociotechnical transitions. A growing body of literature suggests that Industry 4.0 is the result of complex interactions and coordination between technical and social aspects in pursuit of the digital transformation of production processes. Policy solutions and instruments adopted by governments at various levels of the system contribute to catalysing the sociotechnical changes underpinning Industry 4.0. However, the role of intermediary organisations in changing sociotechnical systems and overcoming ecosystem limitations remains largely unexplored. This paper aims at addressing this research gap. Through extensive fieldwork, we explore the case of German competence centres created by the federal government for supporting the digitalisation of SMEs to provide a greater understanding of how intermediary organisations operate in the context of a sociotechnical transition. Specifically, we characterise the role of intermediary organisations in supporting innovation ecosystem participants in engaging with the sociotechnical changes underpinning the Industry 4.0 production system. We suggest the term systemic meta-intermediary for describing a network of intermediary organisations incorporating multiple and heterogeneous competences, with the ultimate goal of facilitating and shaping the transition of a complex sociotechnical system. Actionable insights into how intermediaries can accelerate sociotechnical transitions and extend the benefits generated within Industry 4.0 innovation ecosystems are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The pandemic urges us to advancing a new and different framing on industrial policy. • Industrial policy plays a key role to tackle dramatic societal challenges. • We have reached a turning point on industrial policy, sustainability and development. • We need a new analytical framework on industrial policy governance and implementation. • Industrial policy in a post-Covid19 era should foster sustainable human development. National and local societies all around the world are fighting the most dramatic global public health emergency of our time, which has soon become an economic, social and human crisis touching all key dimensions of our lives. Within an inevitable revamping attention on the need for government intervention to face the challenges raised by the Covid19 pandemic, industrial policy is appearing as a central piece of the puzzle. As production dynamics in every country is highly affected by the crisis, industrial policy is considered part of the response to solve dramatic economic and social problems deriving by extraordinary levels of unemployment, deprivation and poverty. In this paper, we argue that a turning point on the connection between industrial policy, sustainability and development has been reached, highlighting the need to rethink its theoretical foundations as well as its governance and implementation processes for a new role in our post-Covid 19 societies. Therefore, the research question underlying this paper deals primarily with the nexus between the debate on industrial policy and its effects in terms of human development, social cohesion and sustainability. For this reason, we attempt at closing the gap between different strands of literature, whose integrated connection leads to a new analytical framework with real-world implications on the role of industrial policy, not only as tool for productive dynamics, but also as a leverage for sustainable human development. All in all, we aim at contributing to the debate on our post-Covid19 economies and societies in two ways: firstly, by providing a new integrated analytical framework on industrial policy to steer a sustainable structural change of our economies and societies towards sustainable human development; secondly, by identifying preliminary implications on industrial policy governance and implementation, investing in the accurate and transparent design of industrial policy in the post-Covid19 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Agenda 2030 requires tracking progress towards the SDGs in an 'integrated' way. • The SDG Index does not allow for the 'integrated' nature of the SDGs. • The MSI overcomes problems associated with the arithmetic and geometric means. • The new MSI inspired I-SDI embraces synergies between and within goals. • The I-SDI provide new monitoring tools for global, national and local policy. Monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is an important challenge and strategic opportunity for stakeholders and beneficiaries involved with Agenda 2030 at all levels. To monitor progress across a diverse set of goals with multiple targets and indicators and to track overall progress, Jeffrey Sachs and associates have developed the SDG Index. Although their index is robust and permits comparisons across countries, it neglects the 'balanced' and 'integrated' nature of the SDGs (set out in Transforming Our World), and exhibits well-known problems associated with the use of an arithmetic mean (which assumes perfect substitution between dimensions). To overcome these difficulties, this paper introduces an adjusted 'Integrated Sustainable Development Index' (I-SDI) that can take account of trade-offs and synergies between goals and targets as well as across the economic, social and environmental spheres of sustainable development. This is accomplished by introducing a new aggregation method based on the Multidimensional Synthesis of Indicators (MSI) approach. This approach overcomes well-known problems associated with replacing the arithmetic mean with the geometric mean (a difficulty encountered by the post-2010 HDI). Specifically, it makes an allowance for the heterogeneity of dimensions, while avoiding the tendency of the geometric mean to collapse to zero. In this paper, the I-SDI scores and rankings are compared with those generated by the SDG Index and the geometric mean. Moreover, to capture the heterogeneity within goals, the I-SDI2 is introduced (which applies the MSI method within as well as between goals). By taking account of heterogeneity within and between goals as well as across the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, and by capturing synergies and trade-offs among indicators, our study reveals crucial differences in I-SDI scores and rankings that illustrate the value of a more flexible and integrated measure for guiding policymakers and monitor overall progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the efficiency and sustainability of production systems has drawn attention to the importance of monitoring the social and environmental impacts of production processes and management systems. In particular, integrated models and tools need to be developed to assess the application of sustainable operations – especially in those sectors characterized by a high presence of SMEs. This paper proposes an integrated assessment model – the Small and Medium Enterprise Compliance Assessment (SECA) – for SMEs involved in manufacturing and production. SECA provides an integrated tool to detect a firm's compliance with mandatory requirements on environmental and social issues in accordance with relevant legislation applicable in the country. This assessment model employs a new Index of Small and Medium Enterprise Compliance to synthesize both the levels of compliance and the complementary risks to which the enterprise is exposed to, given the applicable legislative domains. To test the model, a pilot application was conducted based on the analysis of 99 Chinese-owned SMEs operating in the textile and fashion manufacturing district in Prato. These enterprises voluntarily underwent the assessment procedure to measure their compliance with mandatory processes and regulations. The results that emerge from this pilot application demonstrate the relevance and capacity of SECA to assess and understand the degree of SMEs' compliance with relevant legislation on sustainability matters. The application also demonstrates the models' potential to be adapted to other local contexts and SMEs as required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]