Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify actions and guidelines for enabling and fostering the
Industry 4.0 adoption, as well as to understand the role of three ecosystem actors in these actions (i.e.
companies, educational organizations and regional policy makers).
Design/methodology/approach – 52 semi-structured expert interviews in the Tyrol-Veneto cross-border
macro-region were carried out and interpreted using the innovation ecosystem concept. In particular, drawing
from this latter, six ecosystem building blocks were identified and used to analyze the interviews’ content.
Findings – The findings allow not only to build a comprehensive framework for action to support Industry 4.0
adoption, but also to confirmthe importance of exploring Industry 4.0 through the lens of the ecosystemconcept. Indeed, the authors show that R&D activities should be complemented with interorganizational actions, such as training and networking, and that all ecosystem actors should be involved in the Industry 4.0 adoption.
Originality/value – This is among the few studies that adopt the innovation ecosystem perspective to explore
best practices for Industry 4.0 adoption, thus overcoming the weakness of existing papers based on a firm-level perspective. It also complements previous ecosystem-based research on Industry 4.0 by exploring the
technology adoption side, rather than the technology provision one, and by considering the adoption of a wide
set of technologies.