Use of Industry 4.0 and Organisational Innovation Concepts in the Serbian Textile and Apparel Industry

Abstract

Technological and non-technological innovations represent one of the most important and sustainable sources of competitive advantages for businesses. Industry 4.0, a new fundamental paradigm shift in industrial production and organisational innovation, as new management practices, are important issues for companies as they seek to upgrade their productivity, improve the quality of supply and retain competitiveness. Analysis of technological and non-technological innovations of the textile and apparel industry in Serbia became particularly important in the situation where the Serbian transitional economy opted to alter its growth model. This paper analyses the results of the European Manufacturing Survey conducted in manufacturing industries in a transitional economy – the Republic of Serbia. The current Serbian dataset of 2015 includes 280 observations of Serbian firms of all manufacturing industries. The empirical results indicate that textile and apparel manufacturing companies in Serbia utilise industry 4.0 and organisational innovation concepts on a very low level.

The Role of Digital Servitization in Transition Economy: An SNA Approach

“…According to this classification, digital services represent the last step in the transformation of manufacturing firms [6,5]. Digital services enable manufacturing firms to offer digital solutions for their customers [6,8] while digital solutions enable manufacturing firms to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace [15]. However, many manufacturing firms from transition economies still do not understand the mechanisms for the implementation of digital servitization [16].…”

“…The knowledge, skills, and attitudes about digital servitization are the main difference between more or less successful firms [4]. Furthermore, the management of manufacturing firms from developed economies is aware of the importance of digital servitization for manufacturing firms [8]. Developed economies transform their manufacturing sector according to the concepts of Industry 4.0 [8].…”

“…The low application of digital technologies is one of the main obstacles to the successful implementation of digital services in manufacturing firms [3]. However, the research from developed economies shows many positive examples between manufacturing firms in how they implement digital servitization [8,9]. The successful implementation of digital servitization results in positive financial implications, which increase firm competitiveness and performance [10].…”

A Precondition of Sustainability: Industry 4.0 Readiness

“…This manuscript used data from the European Manufacturing Survey (EMS) [35]. EMS is carried out in the 17 European countries, which is coordinated by the Fraunhofer ISI from Germany [36][37][38]. This research used a data set from the Republic of Serbia, obtained in 2015 and 2018.…”

Innovative activity of textile industry enterprises and complex indicators of its evaluation

“…Ұйымдастырушылық және маркетингтік инновациялар технологиялық емес болып саналады, бірақ екеуі де технологиялық инновациялар сияқты өте маңызды. Алайда, фирманың тек технологиялық инновациялармен және маркетингтік инновацияларсыз үлкен саудалық табысқа жетуі мүмкін емес [18]. Зерттеулердің көпшілігі өндірістік компаниялардағы технологиялық инновацияларға бағытталған, ал технологиялық емес инновациялар көп жағдайларда еленбейді [19].…”