The role of high-performance people management practices in Industry 4.0: The case of medium-sized Spanish firms

Purpose: This paper wants to build the case for the key role of high-performance people management practices in the development of I4.0 in SMEs. The research upon which this paper is based wants to prove that the consolidation of those practices should be a priority for any company willing to embark in this journey. The paper deals specifically with medium-sized Spanish firms which, on top, are already having significant issues with digitization. Design/methodology: The paper starts by digging into the literature to see how past technologies have impacted productivity, followed by a review of the material available on digitization and Industry 4.0. It moves on to explore the relationship between people management practices, productivity and innovation. Finally, the focus is placed on Spanish medium-sized companies, understanding their current levels of consolidation of high-performance people management practices as well as digitization. With all this information, several propositions are posited for validation using the Delphi methodology. Findings: I4.0 is, at its core, about productivity improvements through business process and business model innovation. People management practices are found to be strongly correlated with both productivity and innovation. It has also been found that Spanish medium-sized firms already have a significant initial gap compared to those of other OECD countries not only in productivity, but also people management practices and digitization. The experts seem to agree on the key role of people management practices and that they should be a high priority for any firm seriously thinking about industry 4.0. This is not to say that strategy or leadership will not play a paramount role in any digital transformation, but to emphasize the fact that the normally-forgotten people management practices will be important enablers in this process. Originality/value: It is believed that this is a topic that has been mostly neglected in the I4.0 literature. In that sense, the findings of this paper could be relevant for small and medium-sized businesses embarking on the industry 4.0 journey. This will entail a significant investment of time and money and, if the key role of people management practices is not on the radar screen, it may have significant implications for the success of those ventures.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The Rise of Robots and the Fall of Routine Jobs

This paper examines the impact of industrial robots on jobs. We combine data on robot adoption and occupations by industry in thirty-seven countries for the period from 2005 to 2015. We exploit differences across industries in technical feasibility – defined as the industry's share of tasks replaceable by robots – to identify the impact of robot usage on employment. The data allow us to differentiate effects by the routine-intensity of employment. We find that a rise in robot adoption relates significantly to a fall in the employment share of routine manual task-intensive jobs. This relation is observed in high-income countries, but not in emerging market and transition economies

The evolution of technological change and its impact on workers. A survey of the literature

none1noThe role played by technological change in the economy and in the labor markets, where it generates both winners and losers, has long been object of debate and investigation. The present paper aims to provide an updated picture of the link between technological progress and labor by surveying the recent literature on this subject. Specifically, it organizes the relevant studies according to the wave of technological change under scrutiny and the selected empirical approach, makes comparisons across articles in the same group and derives some tentative findings. Additionally, this work touches upon an emerging line of research on a related topic, namely, the link between technological change and voting choices. From the reviewed literature, it emerges that, all in all, technological change mainly hinders workers who perform routine tasks and who work in firms that did not keep pace with the digital transformation. At the same time, technological change often increases output and productivity, and can also positively affect employment, especially in the case of workers who perform non-routine tasks and of technologically advanced companies. However, the considerable heterogeneity that affects the surveyed studies makes it difficult to draw general and robust conclusions. A meta-analysis would help overcome such limitation.Working Paper su Collana WP della Scuola di Studi Internazionali-Università degli studi di TrentoopenJasmine MondoloMondolo, Jasmin

Robots and AI

Robots and artificial intelligence (AI) are powerful forces that will likely have large impacts on the size, direction, and composition of international trade flows. This book discusses how industrial robots, automation, and AI affect international growth, trade, productivity, employment, wages, and welfare. The book explains new approaches on how robots and artificial intelligence affect the world economy by presenting detailed theoretical framework and country-specific as well as firm-product level-specific exercises. This book will be a useful reference for those researching on robots, automation, AI and their economic impacts on trade, industry, and employment

Robotics and Work: Labor and Tax regulatory Framework

Considering the risks and opportunities created by the latest developments in advanced robotics, we reflect on the social dimension of this phenomenon and, based on ethics, we analyze some legal aspects. In particular, and taking into account the effects of robotics on the labor market, sustainable legal solutions are proposed and progress is made in the principle of socially and legally responsible robotic innovation, in the field of labor relations and in the adoption of tax and fiscal measures applicable in relation to robots

The Decline of Manufacturing Employment and the Rise of the Far-Right in Austria

In recent decades right-wing populist parties have experienced increased electoral success in many western democracies. This rise of the far-right, which is strongly built on the support of the working class, coincides with a sharp decline of the manufacturing sector. This paper analyzes the contribution of this manufacturing decline to the rise of the Austrian far-right. Overall the decline in manufacturing employment has strongly contributed to this rightward shift in the political landscape, with the manufacturing decline explaining roughly 43% of the observed increase in far-right vote-shares between 1995 and 2017. This effect is entirely driven by increases in natives unemployment rates, which increased considerably due to the manufacturing decline. Regarding the influences of the forces underlying the manufacturing decline, namely international trade and automation technologies, suggests that both forces contributed in roughly equal parts to this development

Robots, tasks, and trade

This paper examines the effects of robotization on trade patterns, wages and welfare. It develops a Ricardian model with two-stage production and trade in intermediate and final goods in which robots can take over some tasks previously performed by humans in a subset of industries. An increase in robot adoption in the North reduces the cost of production and thereby impacts trade in final and intermediate goods with the South. The empirical analysis uses ordinary least squares and instrumental-variable regressions exploiting variation in exposure to robots across countries and sectors. Both reveal that greater robot intensity in own production leads to: (i) a rise in imports sourced from less developed countries in the same industry; and (ii) an even stronger increase in exports to those countries. Counterfactual simulations indicate that Northern robotization raises domestic welfare, but initially depresses wages. However, this adverse effect is likely to be reversed by further reductions in robot prices. Northern robotization may lead to higher wages and welfare in the South.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Adoption of advanced technologies for Hong Kong construction industry

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2005.published_or_final_versio

Robots and Labor Regulation: A Cross-Country/Cross-Industry Analysis

This work discusses and empirically investigates the relationship between labor regulation and robotization. In particular, the empirical analysis focuses on the relationship between the discipline of workers' dismissal and the adoption of industrial robots in nineteen Western countries over the 2006-2016 period. We find that high levels of statutory employment protection have been negatively associated with robot adoption, suggesting that labor-friendly national legislations, by increasing adjustment costs (such as firing costs), and thus making investment riskier, provide less favorable environments for firms to invest in industrial robots. We also find, however, that the correlation is positively mediated by the sectoral levels of capital intensity, a hint that firms do resort to industrial robots as potential substitutes for workers to reduce employees' bargaining power and to limit their hold-up opportunities, which tend to be larger in sectors characterized by high levels of operating leverage