Regional development potentials of Industry 4.0: Open data indicators of the Industry 4.0+ model

This paper aims to identify the regional potential of Industry 4.0 (I4.0). Although the regional background of a company significantly determines how the concept of I4.0 can be introduced, the regional aspects of digital transformation are often neglected with regard to the analysis of I4.0 readiness. Based on the analysis of the I4.0 readiness models, the external regional success factors of the implementation of I4.0 solutions are determined. An I4.0+ (regional Industry 4.0) readiness model, a specific indicator system is developed to foster medium-term regional I4.0 readiness analysis and foresight planning. The indicator system is based on three types of data sources: (1) open governmental data; (2) alternative metrics like the number of I4.0-related publications and patent applications; and (3) the number of news stories related to economic and industrial development. The indicators are aggregated to the statistical regions (NUTS 2), and their relationships analyzed using the Sum of Ranking Differences (SRD) and Promethee II methods. The developed I4.0+ readiness index correlates with regional economic, innovation and competitiveness indexes, which indicates the importance of boosting regional I4.0 readiness.