Driving forces and barriers of Industry 4.0: Do multinational and small and medium-sized companies have equal opportunities?

The Fourth Industrial Revolution poses significant challenges to manufacturing companies from the technological, organizational and management points of view. This paper aims to explore how top executives interpret the concept of Industry 4.0, the driving forces for introducing new technologies and the main barriers to Industry 4.0. The authors applied a qualitative case study design involving 26 semi-structured interviews with leading members of firms, including chief digital officers and chief executive officers. Company websites and annual reports were also examined to increase the reliability and validity of the results. The authors found that management desire to increase control and enable real-time…

• EC
  European Commission