Disclosing the twin transition: digital and green transformation in Italian universities from an institutional perspective

Abstract

The intertwined agendas of digitalisation and sustainability have propelled the ‘twin transition’ to the forefront of scholarship and policy, yet its articulation in higher education remains insufficiently understood. Adopting an institutional theory lens, we examine how Italian universities disclose their twin transition efforts, analysing the most recent strategic documents from 97 institutions using a mixed-methods design. Through an exploratory content analysis, we develop two novel breadth indicators, the Digital Transition Disclosure Breadth Index and the Green Transition Disclosure Breadth Index, which inform a k-means cluster analysis of disclosure profiles. Five archetypes emerge: Laggers, Digital Sprinters, Green Climbers, Twin Shapers, and Twin Masters, revealing pronounced heterogeneity and a prevalence of selective or symbolic reporting. Building on this, we theorise disclosure as a field-level mechanism shaped by coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures, and propose a conceptual framework of five strategic orientations: inertia, competition, compliance, integration, and innovation, which map how universities negotiate competing digital–green logics. The study contributes by offering a systematic mapping of twin disclosure in universities, introducing replicable twin-transition indices, advancing twin-transition research with sector-specific evidence, and extending institutional theory through a framework that connects disclosure orientations with isomorphic dynamics and organisational agency. Implications point to the need for joint twin transition metrics, robust data and knowledge infrastructures, and integrative governance within universities, alongside calibrated policy instruments that encourage balanced, verifiable disclosure and accelerate substantive twin-transition progress.