Impacts of industry 4.0 investments on firm performance: Evidence from Italy

Abstract

The adoption of industry 4.0 technologies is assumed to bring superior competitive advantage for adopting firms as drivers of efficiency, differentiation as well as support to innovation. However, no studies capture the impacts of industry 4.0 technologies on firm’s financial performance. The paper explores the relationship between investments in digital technologies and firm performances, by also examining which are the technologies more likely to be associated with superior performance and eventually the cumulative effect of technologies on performance. Based on unique data gathered in 2017 on a sample of 1, 149 Italian firms, results show the positive impacts on adopters’ performance and the role of robotics and laser cutting in this relationship. No cumulative effect (i.e. adopting more than one or two technologies) is instead observed.