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As the level of implementation of Industry 4.0 increases, misalignments between adopted technologies and organizational factors may result in benefits below expected. This paper aims to analyze how organizational factors can contribute to a higher level of adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. The paper uses a sociotechnical perspective lens to achieve this aim.

Using a sample of 231 manufacturing companies in Denmark, a leading country in Industry 4.0 readiness, the paper analyzes through cluster analysis and logistic regression whether the development of four sociotechnical dimensions – that is, Social, Technical, Work Organization and Environmental factors – in these companies can benefit the achievement of higher levels of Industry 4.0 technology adoption.

The results show that companies focused on the development of sociotechnical aspects generally present higher Industry 4.0 adoption levels. However, some sociotechnical factors are less supportive than others.

Based on these results, practitioners can plan the adoption of advanced technologies, using a systemic organizational view. This study provides evidence on a growing field with few empirical studies available. The paper contributes by providing an analysis of a leading country in Industry 4.0 implementation, presenting a systemic view on technology adoption in the Industry 4.0 context.

This study aims to identify and understand critical success factors for implementing and sustaining circular economy (CE) practices in manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). More precisely, this study examines the complex interplay between micro-, meso- and macro-level success factors that are deemed critical for implementing and sustaining CE practices.

The study is based on a two-stage methodology that combines a comprehensive literature review and an interview study with 12 Swedish manufacturing SMEs that implement CE practices.

The study identifies and categorizes success factors for implementing and sustaining CE practices in manufacturing SMEs. Based on the findings, a holistic framework is proposed that takes into account multiple perspectives, i.e. at the micro, meso and macro levels. This framework enables a deeper understanding and thus a more nuanced discussion of the complexity inherent in the transition to a CE from the perspective of manufacturing SMEs.

This study contributes to the growing body of research on CE transition. By focusing on SMEs in particular, the paper adds the needed diversity to the study of CE practices and influencing factors at different levels.

The purpose of this paper is to study service innovation in product companies (servitization) by considering the relationship (moderation) between product companies and service suppliers.

Using a relational view of the firm, the authors propose that there are three main business dimensions that product companies have to manage in servitization and that the support of service suppliers can moderate the effects of these dimensions on the benefits obtained from the product–service system (PSS) delivered. To test these hypotheses, the authors perform a cross-sectional quantitative survey in 104 Brazilian and Italian product companies.

The findings show that the three business dimensions are important for servitization while there is a trade-off decision regarding service suppliers’ support since suppliers act differently depending on the PSS orientation (product- or service-oriented).

The work is limited to the analysis of what should change in a company during servitization and the impact of supplier’s support. Further research is needed to complement this study by analyzing the process and context of the organizational change.

The research contributes an understanding about how the benefits practitioners can obtain from servitization are strongly influenced by the support of service suppliers and how this influence depends on the PSS orientation of the product company.

This is one of the first quantitative studies to provide evidence of how service suppliers’ involvement affects different servitization business dimensions and the obtained benefits for both product- and service-oriented outputs.

The purpose of this paper is to outline and analyze the influence of environment‐oriented cooperation on innovations as the important factor for sustainable development. The research question is how could environment‐oriented cooperation contribute to innovations in enterprises?

For empirical research, a mix of methods is to be selected. At first, the results are obtained qualitatively and validated quantitatively afterwards. Two cooperation cases are selected: industry‐related and intersectoral cooperation.

The paper explains the contribution of environment‐oriented cooperation to realize innovations by identification of the innovation‐relevant cooperation factors such as: heterogeneous constellation of the cooperation partners; specialist know‐how exchange; coordination; and importance of industry orientation. These factors are also necessary for the implementation of sustainability‐oriented innovation practices in a wider (economical, ecological and social) understanding.

The paper shows that an environment‐oriented cooperation with different actors – which is coordinated by experts and concentrated on industry specific as well as oriented on the interests of all actors – can definitely help to realize potentials of innovation.

Concerning the increasing role of cooperation for the creation and implementation of environmental innovations, substantial awareness gaps are still observed. The paper has tried to identify and analyze cooperation characteristics which influence the implementation of environmental innovations and therefore the sustainable development.

The purpose of this paper is to reduce the research gap in private sector participation in the Danish and German health systems, where empirical evidence is still very scarce compared with the impressive accumulation of similar literature in Anglo-Saxon countries.

Based on the findings of two case studies – one Danish and the other, a German hospital – the paper assesses the future potential of different private sector participation strategies in health care.

The assessment is that low-level private sector participation approaches such as outsourcing and concession models remain limited and specialised financing instruments for health care in Denmark and Germany due to legal restrictions and lesser importance being placed on operational financial savings and improved management than on achieving strategic goals. Furthermore, existing approaches do not necessarily prepare the ground for public-private partnerships.

To date, longitudinal studies of private sector participation in health care are almost non-existent for continental Europe, yet critical for the assessment of the outcomes of long-term projects of ten to 40 years' duration. In addition, there is still a need for more international comparisons, especially for studies comparing more than two countries.

Case studies about private sector participation in health care with transnational European or international comparisons are very scarce. The paper, which compares two cases of a Danish and a German hospital, is therefore a contribution to reducing a relevant research gap. To date, private sector participation in the German health system, in particular, has rarely been discussed in international journal publications.

This study aims to examine the challenges posed by COVID-19 restrictions for audit processes in India and explore the perceptions of the profession on how technology was leveraged to conduct audits during this period. The opinions of auditors on future changes in post-COVID-19 audit practices and processes are also explored.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior auditors working in various audit firms in major business centers in India and subjected to content and thematic analysis using the institutional theory perspective.

The auditing profession used technology to respond to COVID-19-imposed disruptions of established audit process and practices while maintaining the legitimacy of audit reports. The findings indicate that auditors now seem to strongly support the integration of emerging technologies into their auditing practices post-COVID to ensure data accuracy and transparency. The interviewees displayed keen interest in continuing remote and in-person audits to maintain audit quality in the future. The experience of COVID-19 appears to have forced the auditing profession to overcome their reluctance to adopt technologies that were previously used by only Big 4 and large audit companies.

The results will be of particular interest to various stakeholders concerned with aspects of the acceptance of technology-assisted audit reports such as legitimacy, required infrastructure, cost involvement and resistance to change. The findings will also assist professional bodies and policymakers in both developed and developing economies in devising useful strategies to promote technology-aided auditing during and after COVID-19. Limitations posed by inadequate infrastructure and resistance to changes must be overcomed before implementation of technology-aided audits.

As COVID-19 pandemic is a recent phenomenon, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first few studies that have examined the use of technology to facilitate audits during the COVID-19 period, more specifically from a developing economy perspective.

This paper uses dialectical inquiry to explore tensions that arise when adopting Industry 4.0 technologies in a lean production system and their reconciliation mechanisms.

We conducted an in-depth qualitative case study over a 3-year period on an Italian division of an international electrotechnical organisation that produces electrical switches. This organisation successfully adopted Industry 4.0 technologies in a lean production system. The study is based on primary data such as observations and semi-structured interviews, along with secondary data.

We identify four empirically validated dialectic tensions arising across different Industry 4.0 adoption stages due to managers’ and workers’ contrasting interpretations of technologies. Consequently, we define the related reconciliation mechanisms that allow the effective adoption of various Industry 4.0 technologies to support a lean production system.

This is the first empirical investigation of tensions in the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in a lean production system. Furthermore, the paper presents four theoretical propositions and a conceptual model describing which tensions arise during the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in a lean production system and the reconciliation mechanisms that prevent lean production system deterioration.