The impact of industry 4.0 and state incentives on firms' skills needs : an empirical investigation of the italian manufacturing sector

Antonazzo, Luca (author), Sansone, Giuliano (author), Orel, Marko (author)

The advent of Industry 4.0, marking the fourth industrial revolution, has profoundly transformed business operations and em-ployment landscapes over the last ten years. While extensive research has focused on this shift's technological, organisational,and economic implications, recent sociological and educational studies have begun to explore the crucial role of skills in facil-itating the implementation of Industry 4.0, along with the resulting new skill requirements. This paper examines a sample ofItalian manufacturing firms that have adopted Industry 4.0 technologies. We draw on Skill-Biased Technological Change theoryto reflect on the relationship between technological change and the emerging skill needs within the firm. Additionally, we inves-tigate the role of state incentives in guiding technological adoption and the subsequent development of skills. Moving beyond thedichotomous understanding of skills, our qualitative research enables us to propose an analytical framework presenting threemain skills categories and their intersections and integrations, which appear to support I4.0 in our case study firms. Finally,while state incentives promote technological upgrades, adoption, and upskilling, they rarely lead to firms developing entirelynew skill sets

• Language: English
• Keywords: knowledge, skill, technological development, technological breakthrough, Industry 4.0, manufacturing companies
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Geographic coverage: Italija
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 102-115
• Numbering: Vol. 56, iss. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-178064
• UDC: 005.57
• ISSN on article: 1467-9310
• DOI: 10.1111/radm.70009
• COBISS.SI-ID: 244130819
• Publication date in RUL: 16.01.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: R & D management
• Shortened title: R & D manag.
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 1467-9310
• COBISS.SI-ID: 517817113

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

Pojav Industrije 4.0, ki zaznamuje četrto industrijsko revolucijo, je v zadnjih desetih letih globoko spremenil poslovne operacije in zaposlitvene krajine. Medtem ko so se obsežne raziskave osredotočale na tehnološke, organizacijske in ekonomske posledice te spremembe, so novejše sociološke in izobraževalne študije začele raziskovati ključno vlogo znanj in spretnosti pri omogočanju izvajanja Industrije 4.0, skupaj z novimi zahtevami po znanjih in spretnostih, ki iz tega izhajajo. Ta članek preučuje vzorec italijanskih proizvodnih podjetij, ki so sprejela tehnologije Industrije 4.0. Za razmislek o razmerju med tehnološkimi spremembami in nastajajočimi potrebami po znanjih in spretnostih v podjetju se opiramo na teorijo tehnoloških sprememb, ki temeljijo na znanjih in spretnostih. Poleg tega preučujemo vlogo državnih spodbud pri usmerjanju sprejemanja tehnologije in poznejšega razvoja znanj in spretnosti. Naša kvalitativna raziskava nam omogoča, da presežemo dihotomno razumevanje znanj in spretnosti ter predlagamo analitični okvir, ki predstavlja tri glavne kategorije znanj in spretnosti ter njihova presečišča in integracije, ki v naših podjetjih iz študije primera podpirajo I4.0. Nenazadnje, čeprav državne spodbude spodbujajo tehnološke nadgradnje, sprejemanje in izpopolnjevanje, le redko vodijo do tega, da podjetja razvijejo povsem nove sklope znanj in spretnosti.

• Keywords: znanje, spretnost, tehnološki razvoj, tehnološki preboj, Industrija 4.0, proizvodna podjetja