An empirical evaluation of industry 4.0 applications of companies in Turkey: The case of a developing country

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate Industry 4.0 applications in companies of Turkey, a developing country. It also aims to determine how the following factors affect the level of Industry 4.0 applications: technological level of products manufactured, the presence of an R&D department, and the size of the company. A specially-designed questionnaire was used in the survey. According to the results of our research, it can be stated that companies that produce highly technological products are more likely to develop Industry 4.0 applications and to implement Industry 4.0 technologies. If companies of developing countries expense more for R&D, it is expected that their readiness for Industry 4.0 transformation will also be higher. According to our survey, productivity is the main benefit expected by Industry 4.0 applications and lack of technical skills and expertise is one of the most important challenge of Industry 4.0 transformation of companies in Turkey.