Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/266706 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Citation: 
[Journal:] New Technology, Work and Employment [ISSN:] 1468-005X [Volume:] 37 [Issue:] 3 [Publisher:] Wiley [Place:] Hoboken, NJ [Year:] 2022 [Pages:] 445-468
Publisher: 
Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Abstract: 
Debates on digitalisation in Germany often refer to 'Industrie 4.0' describing a seamless and technology‐driven process spearheaded by manufacturing. This view conflicts with sociological arguments, assuming highly differentiated processes of digitalisation. We review the literature and empirically test the core assumption that digital technologies relate to organisational characteristics and that adoption differs according to the type of technology. We analyse German IAB‐Establishment‐Panel data, which contains organisation‐level information, including digital technologies. Our results show a lead of manufacturing in the adoption of digital production technologies. Regarding other digital technologies, manufacturing performs on par or is outperformed by specific service industries. Additionally, the usage of digital technologies relates to organisational characteristics, other than industry (e.g., establishment size, age, competition, employees' qualification). The relationship patterns largely persist across technologies, with some technology‐specific variants. Our empirical results underline the embeddedness of digitalisation processes in Germany and underline the relevance of the technologies in question.
Subjects: 
digital transformation
Industrie 4.0
organisational characteristics
social embeddedness
technology adoption
types of technology
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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