Technologies related to Industry 4.0 require Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to understand their potential applications before they are adopted. In this paper, we test empirically a framework that links SME search strategies within their ecosystem (i.e., breadth of search vs. depth of search) to the capability of SMEs to recognise digital opportunities associated with Industry 4.0 (i.e., digital design, digital manufacturing and digital servitisation opportunities). We analyse a sample of 174 manufacturing SMEs operating in Italy. Our results illustrate the distinguishing traits of the knowledge search paths required to implement Industry 4.0 technologies in an SME manufacturing setting. In particular, they indicate that the recognition of digital opportunities in both product design and manufacturing processes require a depth of collaboration in the innovation process to capture firm and industry-specific company needs and to create mutual trust among the parties. Conversely, digital opportunities in the realm of product/service platforms require a breadth of search for SMEs to invest in different information technology layers to support the digitalisation of a product. We also find that all three groups of digital opportunities positively influence the extent of adoption of information and digital technologies (e.g., IoT, big data analytics, simulation). Our findings bring finer-grained evidence on how digital opportunities are linked with the adoption of the different types of Industry 4.0 technologies, reflecting the peculiar traits of manufacturing SMEs. Moreover, they show managers how to set specific collaboration strategies with the ecosystem according to the digital opportunities they are willing to pursue.

与工业 4.0 相关的技术要求中小型企业 (SME) 在采用之前了解其潜在应用。在本文中，我们凭经验测试了一个框架，该框架将其生态系统内的 SME 搜索策略（即搜索广度与搜索深度）与 SME 识别与工业 4.0 相关的数字机会的能力（即数字设计、数字制造和数字服务化机会）。我们分析了在意大利运营的 174 家制造业中小企业的样本。我们的结果说明了在中小企业制造环境中实施工业 4.0 技术所需的知识搜索路径的显着特征。特别是，它们表明，在产品设计和制造过程中识别数字机会需要在创新过程中进行深度合作，以捕捉公司和行业特定的公司需求，并在各方之间建立相互信任。相反，产品/服务平台领域的数字机会需要中小型企业进行广泛的搜索，以投资于不同的信息技术层，以支持产品的数字化。我们还发现，所有三组数字机会都对信息和数字技术（例如，物联网、大数据分析、模拟）的采用程度产生积极影响。我们的研究结果为数字机会如何与不同类型的工业 4.0 技术的采用相关联提供了更细粒度的证据，体现制造业中小企业的特点。此外，他们向管理者展示了如何根据他们愿意追求的数字机会与生态系统制定具体的协作策略。