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The impact of industry 4.0 on innovation performance: Insights from German manufacturing and service firms

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  • Sarbu, Miruna

Abstract

The new type of industrialization called Industry 4.0 is gaining increasing importance for manufacturing and service firms, by interconnecting information and communication technologies with production facilities. Using representative firm-level data of 4,121 German firms, I analyze how the adoption of Industry 4.0 impacts innovation performance. The analysis is based on bivariate regression models, whereas Lewbel’s instrumental variable methods with generated instruments support robustness and causality of the findings. The results reveal that Industry 4.0 increases the propensity to create product innovations and has a positive impact on the intensity of product innovation in the service sector compared to manufacturing firms.

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  • Sarbu, Miruna, 2022. "The impact of industry 4.0 on innovation performance: Insights from German manufacturing and service firms," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:techno:v:113:y:2022:i:c:s0166497221001966
    DOI: 10.1016/j.technovation.2021.102415
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    Cited by:

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    2. Xie, Xiaoyu & Guo, Kaige, 2024. "How does productive service agglomeration promote manufacturing servitisation from an innovation perspective?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
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    7. Han, Myat Su & Ma, Shuang (Sara) & Wang, Yonggui & Tian, Qinghong, 2023. "Impact of technology-enabled product eco-innovation: Empirical evidence from the Chinese manufacturing industry," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Industry 4.0; Service 4.0; Product innovation; Service innovation; Smart factory; Digitalization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • L20 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - General
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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