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This thesis deeply studies the impact mechanism of digital service trade on the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry from the aspects of technological innovation and industrial structure.

In this thesis, 40 countries from 2010 to 2020 were selected as samples, and the panel fixed-effect model and intermediary effect model were used to empirically analyze the impact path of digital service trade on the high-quality development of global manufacturing.

Overall, digital service trade has a positive impact on the high-quality development of the global manufacturing industry. Through the analysis of the intermediary effect mechanism, it is found that digital service trade can further positively affect the high-quality development of the global manufacturing industry by promoting technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading.

Based on the empirical results, targeted countermeasures and suggestions are given in this paper.

Through the test of national heterogeneity, it is found that in developing countries, digital service trade mainly acts on the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry by promoting industrial structure upgrading.

In developed countries, digital service trade mainly promotes the high-quality development of manufacturing through technological innovation; from the perspective of industry heterogeneity, the three service industries of information and communication technology (ICT), other business services and property have the intermediary effect of technological innovation and industrial structure.

This manuscript suggests that trade in digital services should be promoted as a national trade priority.

The imperative to conserve resources and minimize operational expenses has spurred a notable increase in the adoption of lean manufacturing within the context of the circular economy across diverse industries in recent years. However, a notable gap exists in the research landscape, particularly concerning the implementation of lean practices within the pharmaceutical industry to enhance circular economy performance. Addressing this void, this study endeavors to identify and prioritize the pivotal drivers influencing lean manufacturing within the pharmaceutical sector.

The outcome of this rigorous examination highlights that “Continuous Monitoring Process for Sustainable Lean Implementation,” “Management Involvement for Sustainable Implementation” and “Training and Education” emerge as the most consequential drivers. These factors are deemed crucial for augmenting circular economy performance, underscoring the significance of management engagement, training initiatives and a continuous monitoring process in fostering a closed-loop practice within the pharmaceutical industry.

The findings contribute valuable insights for decision-makers aiming to adopt lean practices within a circular economy framework. Specifically, by streamlining the process of developing a robust action plan tailored to the unique needs of the pharmaceutical sector, our study provides actionable guidance for enhancing overall sustainability in the manufacturing processes.

This study represents one of the initial efforts to systematically identify and assess the drivers to LM implementation within the pharmaceutical industry, contributing to the emerging body of knowledge in this area.

This study aims to examine factors that determine the adoption of additive manufacturing by small- and medium-sized industries. It provides insights with regard to benefits, challenges and business factors that influence small- and medium-sized industries when adopting this technology. The study also aims to expand the domain of additive manufacturing by including a broader range of challenges and benefits of additive manufacturing in literature.

Using data collected from 175 small- and medium-sized industries, the study has examined through Mann–Whitney test to understand the difference between owners and design engineers on additive manufacturing technology adoption in small- and medium-sized companies.

This study suggests contribution to academic discussion by providing associated factors that have significant impact on the adoption of additive manufacturing technology. Related advantages of additive manufacturing are reduction in inventory cost, lowering the wastage in production and customization of products. The study also indicates that factors such as cost of machinery, higher level of cost in integrating metal components have a negative impact on the adoption of this technology in small- and medium-sized industries.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further in the field of challenges and growth in other areas of application of additive manufacturing, for instance, medical sciences, fabric and aerospace.

The study provides important implications that are of interest for both research and practitioners, related to technology management in small- and medium-sized industries, e.g. foundry and machining industries.

This work/study fulfills an identified need of the small- and medium-sized companies in adopting new technologies and contribute to their growth by understanding the need to accept and implement technology.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how small- and medium-scale companies accept new technologies and factors associated with implementation in the manufacturing process of the organization.

Industry 4.0 technologies are promising to increase manufacturing companies' performance through the new knowledge that such digital technologies allow to create and manage within the firm boundaries and through customer interactions. Despite the great attention on the Industry 4.0 adoption paths, little is known about the relationships with previous waves of digital technologies, namely, information and communication technologies (ICTs), and how different groups of both types of technologies link to knowledge and its related performances.

The study employed a quantitative research design using a survey method. Submitting the questionnaire to entrepreneurs, chief operation officers or managers in charge of the operational and technological processes of Italian manufacturing firms, 206 respondents stated that their firm has adopted at least one of the seven Industry 4.0 technologies investigated.

The findings of the study highlight the positive relationship between ICT and Industry 4.0 technologies in terms of both intensity and groups of technologies (Web-based, Management and Manufacturing ICT; Operation, Customization and Data-processing 4.0), and how technologies affect knowledge-related performances in terms of products and processes, job-learning, product-related services and customer involvement.

This study is one of the first attempts to link groups of ICT to groups of Industry 4.0 technologies and to explore the effects in terms of knowledge-related performances as a measure of technology use. The study shows strong path dependency among ICT, Industry 4.0 and knowledge performance, enriching the literature on technological innovation and knowledge management.

The manufacturing industry is one of the most disrupted systems as a result of the global spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Manufacturing firms are looking for strategies and policies to deal with the situation while also meeting customer demands. This study aims to discuss and analyze the barriers that have impacted manufacturing systems during this period.

The barriers and performance measures were extracted from the extant literature and further discussed with academic and industry experts. Based on the response of experts, a list of ten barriers and five performance measures were selected for further analysis. The interpretive ranking process (IRP) is applied to analyze the inter-relationship among the barriers with respect to performance variables. The cross-interaction matrices and the dominance profile are created to prioritize the barriers. Based on dominance value, an IRP-based manufacturing barrier evaluation model is developed for validation.

The impact of the pandemic on the manufacturing industry is analyzed through the list of barriers and a structured ranking model is proposed. The research findings of the study indicate that “Financial constraints” is the most influential barrier to manufacturing due to the outbreak of Covid-19, followed by “Government imposed restrictions” and “Setbacks in logistics services.”

The ranking of barriers and developed interpretive ranking process model would be helpful for practitioners and policymakers to formulate strategies for manufacturing organizations to deal with the pandemic situation. The finding can be beneficial as it promotes similar studies in other sectors.

This study contributes to the manufacturing sector by developing a contextual relationship among the set of identified barriers against various performance measures. As per the author's knowledge, this is the first study that provides a relationship and ranking of manufacturing barriers due to the outbreak of Covid-19.

Previous approaches have employed the SCOR model for evaluating supply chain management, and in particular, have focused on cash-to-cash cycle time (C2C). This paper reviews the Supply Chain Index (SCI) developed by Supply Chain Insight LLC, which evaluates supply chain performance based on balance, strength, and resiliency. The main aim of this study is to review SCI as a new methodology to measure performance management, as well as to apply C2C for a case study of Korean firms, to compare and present differences for further complementary application.

This paper empirically investigates the processes by which manufacturing firms create radical innovations in their core production process, referred to as radical manufacturing technology innovations (RMTI). The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of the processes and practices manufacturing firms use to create RMTI.

Creation processes for 23 RMTI projects from diverse industry and technology contexts are explored. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews, and an inductive analysis was carried out to identify similarities and differences in RMTI types and creation processes.

Three types of RMTI and three alternative RMTI creation processes are revealed and characterized. An integrated view is developed of the activities of the equipment supplier and the manufacturing firm, highlighting their different roles and interaction across the three RMTI creation process types.

The exploratory design limits the depth of the analysis per RMTI project, and the focus is on manufacturing technology innovations in one country. The results extend previous case and context-specific findings on RMTI creation processes and provide novel frameworks for cross-case comparisons.

The manufacturing firms’ proactive role in RMTI creation is defined. A framework is proposed for using different RMTI creation processes for different types of RMTI.

This study addresses recent calls for empirical research on understanding the ways in which process innovations unfold in manufacturing firms. The findings emphasize the role of manufacturing firms as creators of RMTI in addition to their role as innovation adopters and implementers and reveal the suitability of different RMTI creation processes for different RMTI types.

This paper has two objectives: first, to investigate the state-of-the-art of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) adoption in Italian manufacturing firms and, second, to understand variations in technologies implemented and business functions involved, benefits perceived, and obstacles encountered in I4.0 implementation over a three-year period.

The approach adopted in this research is descriptive, nesting longitudinal features. The paper presents a descriptive survey of 102 Italian manufacturing companies. The authors also evaluated non-response biases. The longitudinal approach was achieved by comparing the responses of the 40 sub-samples in common with a second similar survey launched three years prior, which aimed to identify patterns of evolution in the adoption of the I4.0 paradigm.

Survey findings demonstrate that Italian manufacturing companies still have limited awareness of I4.0 technologies, and the adoption of I4.0 technologies differs per technology. Company size and information system coverage level are the two factors that impact the company's technology adoption level. The comparative study shows that knowledge and adoption increase in a three-year interval with an unbalanced involvement of business functions regarding the I4.0 transformation. Indeed, companies are still seeking I4.0 solutions to reduce costs and lead times primarily, and the benefits perceived by companies are shown to be related to the number of I4.0 technologies in use. Finally, when companies put the I4.0 technologies into practice, competence is constantly considered the most significant barrier.

This paper aims at conducting a thorough investigation into the development of I4.0 adoption in manufacturing companies. The main limitation of this study concerns the limited number of subjects involved in the longitudinal study (40) and the focus on a limited geographical area (Italy). In addition, more I4.0 technologies could also be incorporated into the survey protocol to gain further insight into I4.0 development.

The authors provide one of the first attempts to assess the variations of I4.0 implementation concerning technology adoption, business function involvement, and the alteration of benefits and obstacles. Several studies presented in the literature highlight the lack of longitudinal studies investigating the development of the I4.0 paradigm in a specific manufacturing context: this paper is the attempt at filling this gap.

This study aims to investigate the motivations for the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies among manufacturing firms in developing economies. Specifically, the effects of relative advantage of the technologies, competitive pressure, and government support on the adoption are explored. Moreover, the mediating role of top management support between environmental factors (government support and competitive pressure) and the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies is examined.

A research model is developed based on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework strengthened by institutional theory. Structural equation modeling (SEM) approach is employed to evaluate the model using data obtained from 215 manufacturing firms through a cross-industry survey. Additionally, a post-hoc analysis is conducted using cluster analysis and ANOVA.

The results show that competitive pressure and government support significantly promote top management support, which in turn contributes to the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. Relative advantage of the technologies is not significantly related to the adoption.

This study does not explore the relationship between technology type and the specific needs of manufacturing firms. Future researchers can conduct a more comprehensive analysis by examining how different technology types align with the unique needs of individual companies.

The findings of this study have implications for both policymakers and managers. Policymakers can leverage these insights to understand the underlying motivations behind manufacturing firms' adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies and develop promoting policies. In turn, managers should keep an eye on government policies and utilize government support to facilitate technology adoption.

This study uncovers the underlying motivations—government support and competitive pressure—for the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies among manufacturing firms in developing economies. Meanwhile, it complements previous research by showing the mediating role of top management support between environmental factors (government support and competitive pressure) and the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies.