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@article{208865,
        author = {Hetal M Mahajan and Laksh S Anandani and Dr. Shailendra Patil and Shrinidhi H Bhurke and Dr. Shriram N. Kargaonkar},
        title = {Beyond Adoption: Measuring the Business Value of Industry 4.0 In SMEs - From Digital Investment to Innovation and Competitive Advantage},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {13},
        number = {no},
        pages = {711-726},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=208865},
        abstract = {Many people say that Industry 4.0 tools give small and medium enterprises (SMEs) a big edge over others. We still do not know for sure if using digital technology actually brings real value to Indian SMEs. This study looks at how digital technology adoption, innovation, and business performance work together in Indian businesses, and whether innovation is the bridge that connects digital technology adoption to business performance. We used data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (WBES) for India: the 2025 India Enterprise Survey, covering 10,479 businesses (including a subgroup of 7,386 SMEs with 5–99 workers), and the 2026 Artificial Intelligence follow-up survey, covering 1,355 businesses. Digital technology adoption was measured in two ways. First, whether a business has a website. Second, a seven-item index covering social media, messaging apps, software for managing customers or supply chains, artificial intelligence, and big data. Innovation is defined as introducing a new or improved product, service, or process in the last three years. Business performance is measured mainly as labor productivity (output per employee) and, secondarily, as sales growth. These relationships were tested using logistic regression, least squares regression, and bootstrap mediation analysis. The results show that digital technology adoption and innovation are positively linked in the larger sample. However, digital technology adoption does not directly raise labor productivity, and innovation shows a negative link to labor productivity in both samples. This suggests that digital technology adoption for SMEs does not always translate into more efficient work, and that the link between innovation and performance is more complex than expected.},
        keywords = {Industry 4.0; Digital Technology Adoption; Indian SMEs; Innovation; Business Performance; World Bank Enterprise Surveys; Mediation Analysis},
        month = {September},
        }