Evaluating and Ranking Industry 4.0 Technologies Indicators for Agile and Resilient Business Models with MCDM

Because the competition became complex and the company's uncertainty became apparent, agility and resilience are now a mandatory strategic capability for organizations seeking long-term competitive advantage in global markets. The objective of this paper is therefore to assess and rank the key Industry 4.0 technologies against their contribution to agility and resilience of the business models with special focus in EU. Using a structured Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) method, the Best–Worst Method (BWM), this research includes expert judgments to rank the six strategic drivers of cloud computing adoption, which are flexibility, scalability, integration facilitation, decision support, implementation risk, and recovery facilitation. These criteria capture the multifaceted roles that technologies play in strengthening organizations’ adaptive capacity and continuity planning. In this research, data were ranked based on five highlighted Industry 4.0 technologies (i.e., Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, Internet of Things, Blockchain, and Cyber-Physical Systems) and for 32 EU-based experts across academia and industry. Based on the analysis of the determinants, it comes that the lesser index in supporting agile and resilient business models is Big Data Analytics (BDA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), since BDA and AI have performed way better in decision-making support and flexibility. The results contribute to theoretical knowledge and are also valuable in practice as they give a strategic pathway for technology adoption which is coherent with the key priorities of digital transformation set out by the EU. The study fills an important void in the literature by connecting the domains of digital technology assessment and organizational agility and resilience. It also provides a replicable playbook for policymakers and managers who want to direct resources toward technologies with the greatest strategic impact in rapidly moving industrial ecosystems.