Developing human capital 4.0 in emerging economies: an industry 4.0 perspective

Purpose - The present study is an attempt of identifying the human capital skills and HR-related challenges faced by top management in the perspective of industry 4.0 in emerging economies. In addition, the importance or key resources related to human assets that help in attaining competitive advantages while adopting newer digital technologies are also identified. Design/methodology/approach - For identifying the dimensions of human capital skills in the perspective of industry 4.0, an extensive review of literature was performed. Along with that, feedback from the expert was used to conceptualize the importance and relationship of the skills in the context of industry 4.0. After that, a qualitative survey was launched and triangulate method was applied for identifying the skills. AHP and DEMATEL was used to analyze the relationship among the skills and subskills and to rank them based on their importance. Findings - The qualitative survey resulted in skills such as “Cognitive, Emotional and Behavioural skills” and subskills of them. AHP results indicated that “Cognitive skills” was found as the most important skill followed by “Emotional skills” and “Behavioural skills”. In addition to this, DEMATEL was applied for seeking the inter-relationship and identifying the “Cause” and “Effect” relationship of skills and sub-skills. Originality/value - This study prioritizes factors in a coordinated manner and also finds the relative importance in the context of industry 4.0. It will help further in identifying and deploying human capital with the right skills and will play a significant role at the time of formulating organizational and HR level strategies.