Industry 4.0 technologies and the servitization strategy: a good match?

Purpose of the paper: The paper aims at investigating whether a relationship exists between the servitization strategy and the adoption of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in a B2B context. Methodology: Case study method based on in-depth interviews with the entrepreneurs and managers of 7 SMEs operating in the mechanical sector in Italy Findings: The article provides some preliminary evidence on the interplay between some I4.0 technologies (Internet of Things, cloud computing, simulation, big data and analytics) and the servitization strategies of B2B SMEs, and highlights its performance implications. The authors propose three research propositions to be tested in future studies.