Prioritizing barriers for the adoption of industry 4.0 technologies

While Industry 4.0 promises large technological improvements, firms face multiple challenges in its adoption. Current literature has made significant efforts to identify the barriers which are common to most companies but fails to identify their interrelationships and their implications for practitioners. We use interpretive structural modelling (ISM) methodology to identify these barriers and their interrelationships, combined with matrix impact of cross multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) analysis to identify the root barriers, in the context of the Portuguese manufacturing industry. We categorize these barriers using the Technology-Organization-Environment framework. We conclude that barriers related to standardization and lack of off-the-shelf solutions are considered root barriers. Our results differ from other studies that regard barriers related to legal and contractual uncertainty with the highest driving power and lowest dependence power. Also, we find that organizational barriers have the highest dependency and lowest driving power, contradicting studies on the topic. We provide recommendations for managers and policymakers in three areas: Standardization Dissemination, Infrastructure Development, and Digital Strategy