At The Roots Of The Fourth Industrial Revolution: How ICT Investments Affect Industry 4.0 Adoption

Marco Bettiol (), Mauro Capestro, Eleonora Di Maria and Stefano Micelli
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Marco Bettiol: DSEA - University of Padova
Mauro Capestro: DSEA - University of Padova
Eleonora Di Maria: DSEA - University of Padova
Stefano Micelli: Department of Management - Ca’ Foscari University

No 253, "Marco Fanno" Working Papers from Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno"

Abstract: The debate on the adoption of industry 4.0 technologies focuses on the transformation of organizations and business opportunities towards a new industrial revolution, driven by a recent emerging technological scenario. Despite this growing discussion, little has been said on the relationship with the previous waves of digital technologies and specifically how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are related with the adoption of industry 4.0 technologies. The paper explores the relationship between the antecedents driving industry 4.0 investments, examining how the firm’s ICT endowment relates to the industry 4.0 technologies adopted, in terms of intensity as well as of types of ICT associated with specific types of industry 4.0 technologies, and the role of strategic motivations on the investment 4.0. Based on unique data gathered in 2017 on a sample of 1,229 Italian firms, results on 165 adopters show the positive relation between the adoption of ICT and industry 4.0 technologies as well as between specific groups of ICT technologies – that we identify into three ones: web ICT, management ICT, and manufacturing ICT – and groups of industry 4.0 ones (data-driven tech 4.0, production tech 4.0, and customization tech 4.0). Results highlight the strong connection between firm experience with prior digital investments and the consequent Industry 4.0 adoption. Moreover, there is a relation between specific clusters of ICT technologies – Web ICT, Operation ICT, and Management ICT – and industry 4.0 technologies. Among the strategic motivations driving industry 4.0 the relevant one is product variety, consistently with the selective technologies chosen, taking into account the ICT path of adoption. On the contrary efficiency is negatively related to the adoption of industry 4.0 technologies, stressing the more important role of market-driven variables for technological investments. A second relevant result is related to the role of ICT-related competences firms have to internally develop in order to adopt industry 4.0 technologies, beyond size. For firms – also SMEs – it becomes more important in the context of “Industry 4.0” to rely on internal resources (know-how connected to the ICT domain) that can positively enact the selection and exploitation of industry 4.0 technologies. As a policy implication, pushing the adoption of industry 4.0 technologies in firms with limited ICT resources should be coupled with actions supporting the development of such know-how and broader ICT competences as the roots for industry 4.0.

Keywords: digital technologies; ICT; strategy; industry 4.0; fourth industrial revolution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-ict, nep-knm and nep-tid
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