Under Pressure: Strategic Choices and Contextual Trade-Offs of SMEs Facing Industry 4.0 Implementation

Besides sharing similar characteristics of staff headcount, turnover, and balance sheet total, each small and medium entreprise (SME) has its unique context that may influence their intention to implement Industry 4.0. The contextual factors encouraging or preventing SMEs from implementing Industry 4.0 receive an increasing attention by the research community. However, there is still a scarcity of studies that go beyond simple inventorying of contextual enablers and barriers and that try to assess their influence on SMEs’ strategic choices regarding Industry 4.0 implementation. The authors of this study decided to tackle these gaps by conducting a narrative literature review focused on the following research question: How contextual enablers and barriers influence SMEs’ strategic choices regarding Industry 4.0 implementation? Analysed through the lens of institutional approach, the results allow the authors to generate a global framework composed of 35 contextual triggers potentially leading SMEs to trade-offs regarding 5 dimensions of strategic choices for Industry 4.0 implementation.