Impact of Industry 4.0 Technology on International Posting of Workers

Joanna Bednarz, Carola Schuster and Martin Rost

SAGE Open, 2023, vol. 13, issue 1, 21582440231163488

Abstract: Posting of workers is a common reality in all EU Member States and in all export-oriented industries. The problem relates to existing travel restrictions in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic and in the context of the carbon footprint of business travel. In this context, the development of new Industry 4.0 technologies plays a significant role. The aim of the article is to identify the impact of Industry 4.0 technology on the international posting of workers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic on example of the German chemical industry. The basis of the analysis are two factor conditions of the Diamond Model of M.E. Porter: innovation and human capital. A qualitative study was conducted with experts in Industry 4.0 that regularly post workers. The results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of technology adoption (especially Augmented Reality cluster). Industry 4.0 technologies enable companies to reduce the posting of workers. For this purpose, IT skills are now the most important, followed by communication, flexibility, and openness, as well as soft, team and didactic skills. JEL Codes: F23, J61, O33

Keywords: Industry 4.0; posting of workers; Diamond Model; COVID-19; chemical industry; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440231163488 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:13:y:2023:i:1:p:21582440231163488

DOI: 10.1177/21582440231163488

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in SAGE Open
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().