Navigating the exploitation–exploration paradox: the impact of industry 4.0 technologies on supply chain performance from the Organisational ambidexterity lens
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies have significant potential to improve supply chain performance, yet organisations often struggle to realise these benefits in practice. Drawing on Structural Ambidexterity Theory, this study examines how specific I4.0 technologies affect core supply chain functions, identifies the principal barriers to implementation, and explores how organisational and sectoral characteristics influence implementation success. The study conducted 19 semi-structured interviews with supply chain directors, digital transformation leaders, and I4.0 consultants across the automotive, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, construction, and high-technology manufacturing sectors. Data were analysed using a three-stage thematic coding process (open, axial, and selective coding) anchored in Simsek et al. (Citation2009) partitional ambidexterity framework. The findings reveal that different I4.0 technologies generate distinct impacts across supply chain functions. Base technologies, including IoT, sensors, machine learning-driven forecasting, robotics, and big data analytics, deliver measurable improvements in demand planning, inventory management, manufacturing operations, and logistics through enhanced visibility, automation, and operational efficiency. In contrast, advanced technologies such as AI-driven decision intelligence, digital twins, simulation, and augmented reality offer greater transformative potential but require substantially higher levels of organisational learning, experimentation, and integration capability. The study further identifies five interconnected implementation barriers: process immaturity, legacy system integration challenges, human resistance to change, workforce capability gaps, and investment uncertainty. Organisational culture, leadership commitment, firm size, and sector-specific regulatory and competitive conditions are found to shape the success and pace of I4.0 adoption. Building on these findings, the study argues that I4.0 adoption creates a fundamental socio-technical tension between exploitation and exploration. Structural separation of exploitative and explorative technology initiatives, enabled through cloud computing and big data analytics, emerges as a viable mechanism for managing this tension. The study extends the partitional ambidexterity framework through the concept of Connected Partitioning and introduces Virtual Integration as a digital mechanism linking differentiated capability streams. It further proposes Structural Buffering as a mechanism for protecting explorative technology initiatives from the socio-technical resistance concentrated in that domain, and identifies a sequential ambidexterity pathway in which exploitative stabilisation is a precondition for explorative capability. The research provides a theoretically grounded and empirically rich understanding of I4.0-enabled supply chain transformation and offers actionable guidance for managers navigating digital transformation initiatives.
Source: Production Planning & Control
Language: English
Subfield: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7213974978