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| How the Use of Industrial Internet Promotes Intelligent Transformation of SMEs:Driving Factors and Enabling Mechanism |
| Wang Chang,Deng Chan,He Qi,Zhou Yifang |
| (School of Business, Central South University, Changsha 410000, China) |
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Abstract The Industrial Internet is a new type of infrastructure that deeply integrates the new generation of information and communication technologies with the industrial economy,promoting the intelligent transformation of SMEs. The research on Industrial Internet in the theoretical circle is still in the exploratory stage. Existing studies have discussed the definition and necessity of Industrial Internet from the perspective of technology and organization adoption. However, the effective use of the Industrial Internet by SMEs and the influencing mechanism of Industrial Internet to support the intelligent transformation of enterprises are not clear, and worthy of further analysis.#br#On the basis of the TOE framework and enterprise capability theory, this study constructs a comprehensive model about the antecedents and consequences of Industrial Internet use. There are 391 questionnaires collected from small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, and the following main conclusions are obtained through the empirical analysis.#br#First of all, the important drivers of Industrial Internet use include resource readiness, digital capabilities, business complexity and government support.To be specific, resource readiness is the primary prerequisite for SMEs to use the Industrial Internet. The Industrial Internet mainly relies on the "invisible data" elements to empower enterprises, but the real use also needs the timely follow-up and response of dedicated resources. Digital capability is the technical basis for SMEs to use the Industrial Internet. It represents the enterprise's ability to identify digital opportunities and respond to digital technology, and also reflects its pre-digitalization degree. Business complexity reflects the internal needs of SMEs to use the Industrial Internet. This conclusion indicates that in the era of intelligent manufacturing Industry 4.0, the Industrial Internet has become an important means for enterprises to cope with business complexity. Government support provides an external guarantee which can help enterprises to lower the threshold of use, alleviate concerns about cloud access, and make up for the shortage of small and medium-sized enterprises' resources and capabilities.#br#Second, the Industrial Internet enables enterprises to transform and upgrade by building two core competencies. To be specific, the use of the Industrial Internet has an obvious enabling effect on the intelligent transformation of SMEs. The Industrial Internet has brought profound changes to the mode of production and provided a new solution for the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry.Integrated connectivity capability enables intelligent transformation by facilitating enterprise connectivity. Collaborative integration capability achieves intelligent transformation by promoting enterprise collaboration. SMEs are confronted with the constraints of low resource capacity and high knowledge barriers, and it is difficult to realize intelligent transformation by relying on their strength. The Industrial Internet can focus on multiple value participants from different industries or fields, and strengthen the multi-subject collaboration of the industrial chain.#br#This study has made the following two theoretical contributions. On the one hand,it promotes the research on the driving factors of "cloud-based platforms" for SMEs. Within the TOE framework, the driving effects of technology, organization and environment-related factors on the use of Industrial Internet are clarified, and the theoretical research of Industrial Internet is expanded from "whether to use it" to "how to use it well". Thus this study provides an effective theoretical reference for SMEs to go on the cloud platform. On the other hand,this study reveals the mechanism black box of how Industrial Internet promotes the intelligent transformation of enterprises. Although existing studies have proposed that the Industrial Internet brings value to enterprises from the perspective of organizational adoption, there is no in-depth analysis of the influence mechanism of the Industrial Internet to promote enterprise transformation. By exploring the two core capabilities of the Industrial Internet, this study highlights the key transmission role between the use of the Industrial Internet and intelligent transformation. From the perspective of empowerment, it opens the black box of the transformation mechanism of Industrial Internet-embedded enterprises into capabilities and then promotes the intelligent transformation, and clarifies the effects of different types of capabilities on the intelligent transformation. This finding also expands the way for resource-deficient SMEs to carry out intelligent transformation with the help of third-party forces and promotes relevant research in the era of intelligent manufacturing Industry 4.0.#br#
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Received: 17 October 2022
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