The Unknown Known: Perceptions of Industry 4.0 shaped by SMEs’ Executives

The implementation of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) has been a top priority for industrial companies for several years now. While existing studies focus on risks, advantages, and transformation roadmaps, the concept’s ambiguous nature and its organisational implications warrant closer look. Previous research indicates that the interpretive flexibility of I4.0 leads to diverse definitions influenced by profiles and expectations of actors behind them. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that companies’ readiness to implement I4.0 is shaped by the perceptions of their managers. Yet, current research overlooks how managers navigate I4.0's conceptual ambiguity during organisational change. Addressing this gap, our study provides initial insights from a mixed-method research's first phase—an online survey of industrial SME executives in Belgium's Walloon region. Preliminary findings reveal diverse managerial perceptions of I4.0, categorised into three thematic groups encompassing seven perception categories.