Industry 4.0: national and regional comparative advantages in key enabling technologies

ABSTRACT

Industry 4.0 is a name used to indicate a ‘fourth industrial revolution’, characterised by the emergence of smart factories in which cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes and communicate with each other and human beings in real time. European Member States and regions are committed to adapt their innovation systems to the trends of Industry 4.0 and Europe as a whole is facing the challenge of finding a balance between promoting research and innovation excellence and putting less advanced regions in the position to benefit from the ongoing industrial revolution. However, relatively little is known about the magnitude of this economic phenomenon, the comparative advantages of countries and regions and their technological specialisation. We use data from European regions’ participation in collaborative research projects promoted by the 7th Framework Programme for research and innovation to investigate relative and absolute advantages in the enabling technologies of Industry 4.0. Data are regionalised and categorised on the basis of an original taxonomy of technologies developed with the support of a team of European experts in each technological domain. The article also explores regional networks promoted by the Framework Programme and draws policy indications to support the competitiveness of European manufacturing.

KEYWORDS:

• European framework programme for research and innovation
• industry 4.0
• smart factories
• smart specialisation
• social network analysis
• european regions
• revealed comparative advantage

Acknowledgements

This work benefited from valuable input from Antonio Lopolito, Luca Rossi, Marco Pompili and the anonymous referees.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Andrea Ciffolilli http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6738-4967

Alessandro Muscio http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5186-2522

Notes

1 In preparation for the launch of the ‘Factories of the Future’ public-private partnership under FP7, EFFRA, the European Factories of the Future Research Association, prepared a roadmap identifying four research priorities:

• - Sustainable Manufacturing: Energy-efficient manufacturing with minimal environmental impact.

• - ICT-Enabled Intelligent Manufacturing: Improved efficiency, adaptability and sustainability incorporated into flexible business models and agile manufacturing processes.

• - High-Performance Manufacturing: Additive production equipment, high-precision manufacturing with near-to-zero defects.

• - Exploiting New Materials Through Manufacturing: Safe, cost-effective and affordable technology and production equipment for processing new materials.

2 http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/index_en.cfm

3 http://www.bmwi.de/EN/Topics/Economy/Industrial-policy/industrie-4-0,did=708234.html?view=renderPrint

4 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/

5 https://www.bmbf.de/pub/HTS_Broschuere_eng.pdf

6 http://www.manufuture2015.eu

7 https://ismerieuropa.com/en/

8 Expressed as follows:(1)

where RF_ij is FP7 research funding in Country i and for enabling technology j while RF_it is the FP7 research funding in Country i for all Industry 4.0 enabling technologies (8); RF_nj is the total FP7 research funding in all European Countries (32), considered in the analysis, in technology j, while RF_nt is the total FP7 research funding in all European countries and for all Industry 4.0 enabling technologies. The numerator measures the share of funding that Country i received out all the funding it received for projects developing Industry 4.0 technologies. The denominator measures instead the share of funding that all European countries received out all the funding they received for developing Industry 4.0 technologies.

9 Expressed as follows: (2)

where POP is the population headcount while RF_ij and RF_it are defined as in the calculation of RCA.