Does value chain participation facilitate the adoption of industry 4.0 technologies in developing countries?

Michele Delera, Carlo Pietrobelli, Elisa Calza and Alejandro Lavopa

No 2020-046, MERIT Working Papers from United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT)

Abstract: The adoption of new technology is a key driver of firm performance and economic development. In this paper, we develop a framework for the firm-level analysis of the adoption of digital technology in developing economies. We investigate whether firms' participation to global value chains (GVCs) can facilitate the adoption of digital technologies. Using a novel database on the adoption of different generations of technology by manufacturing firms in Ghana, Vietnam, and Thailand, we document that the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies remains extremely limited. We also find that firms' participation to GVCs is an important driver of digital technology adoption, and that adoption is positively associated with firm-level performance.

Keywords: Value Chain; GVCs; Industry 4.0; Technology adoption; Economic development; Capabilities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O12 O14 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-10-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-dev, nep-int, nep-pay, nep-sea and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Does value chain participation facilitate the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in developing countries? (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unm:unumer:2020046

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