IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-05352781.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Digital upskilling and industry 4.0: examining affordances for sustainable workforce upskilling in SMEs

Author

Listed:
  • Noor Ul Ain

    (DVRC - De Vinci Research Center - DVHE - De Vinci Higher Education)

  • Mehwish Waheed

    (Smart BIS - Smart Business Information Systems - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], IMT-BS - TIM - Département Technologies, Information & Management - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], LITEM - Laboratoire en Innovation, Technologies, Economie et Management (EA 7363) - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - Université Paris-Saclay - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris])

Abstract

The growing incorporation of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies has intensified the demand for digital upskilling among manufacturing industry engineers in SMEs. Digital Learning 4.0 Systems (DL4.0s) provide sustainable training solutions, yet their effective utilization remains insufficiently explored. This study uses motivational affordance theory combined with basic human needs frameworks to explore how motivational, environmental, and social affordances shape the adoption of DL4.0s and influence knowledge transferability. A time lagged three-wave study collected data from 302 industry engineers in southern and western European SMEs, and the dataset was evaluated using PLS-SEM. Results indicate that: a) educational affordance and I4.0 technological competence (motivational affordances), support affordance (environmental affordance), and social affordance positively influence DL4.0s use, while privacy affordance has a negative effect; b) DL4.0s use significantly enhances knowledge transferability; and c) web experience moderates the relationship between educational and I4.0 technological competence affordances and DL4.0s use. The findings offer relevant considerations for SME leaders and policy stakeholders aiming to expand digital training access, promote adaptive skills development, and sustain organizational learning in evolving technological contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Noor Ul Ain & Mehwish Waheed, 2025. "Digital upskilling and industry 4.0: examining affordances for sustainable workforce upskilling in SMEs," Post-Print hal-05352781, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05352781
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a
    for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05352781. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.