Over the years, manufacturing in advanced economies has been the object of intense reorganization driven crucially by the international strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs), and more recently, by technological disruptions powering a new manufacturing model, defined as Industry 4.0 (I4.0). This paper aims to explore firm-based, place-based and global drivers that can determine high levels of companies’ performance in the context of the emerging manufacturing model ‘I4.0’. In particular, our article tests the relative importance of and balance between three determinants of MNEs’ performance: (i) MNEs’ internal operations and R&D capabilities; (ii) reliance on local external economies and co-location with high-value service and technological competence; and (iii) the extent of MNEs’ production in terms of spread across global value chains. We empirically address this issue by surveying top managers of MNEs operating in four advanced manufacturing industries (biotech, engineering, fashion, and new materials) and located in five European countries (Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom). We adopt fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, a configurational, case-oriented approach. MNEs can be highly profitable when they follow different, but equally successful, paths. Our findings shed light on which balance between firm-based, place-based and global drivers positively impacts on companies’ performance in European advanced manufacturing sectors. In particular, we find that companies that collaborate with local suppliers of enabling technologies linked to I4.0 - with regard to the variety and intensity of collaborations- show high levels of performance. Policy implications are drawn in the concluding remarks.

多年来，发达经济体的制造业一直是强烈重组的对象，这主要是由跨国企业（MNEs）的国际战略推动的，最近，技术变革为一种新的制造业模式提供了动力，这种新的制造业模式定义为工业4.0（I4.0） 。本文旨在探索基于公司，地点和全球的驱动因素，这些驱动因素可以在新兴的制造模型“ I4.0”的背景下确定公司的高绩效。特别是，本文测试了跨国公司绩效的三个决定因素之间的相对重要性和平衡：（i）跨国公司的内部运营和研发能力；（ii）依靠当地的外部经济和在同一地点的高价值服务和技术能力；（iii）跨国公司在全球价值链中的分布程度。我们通过调查分布在五个欧洲国家（德国，意大利，西班牙，瑞典和英国）的四个先进制造业（生物技术，工程，时尚和新材料）的跨国企业的高层管理人员，以经验方式解决此问题。我们采用模糊集定性比较分析，这是一种结构化的，面向案例的方法。跨国公司走不同但同样成功的道路时，它们可以实现高利润。我们的发现揭示了基于公司的，基于地点的和全球驱动因素之间的平衡对公司在欧洲先进制造业领域的业绩产生了积极影响。特别是，我们发现与本地供应商合作的公司支持与I4相关的技术。0-在协作的多样性和强度方面，表现出很高的绩效。结束语中提到了政策含义。