In current discussions, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is ascribed great influence on production processes. Research on AI has seen tremendous growth in recent years. However, most of the research has focused primarily on various AI technologies, and less on prerequisites and enablers for adoption of AI at firm-level. This is surprising, given the fact that many companies are still struggling to establish AI in their production and to drive their AI adoption forward.

To close this gap, this study analyses the impact of various technological, organizational and environmental (TOE) prerequisites for a successful adoption of AI technologies in manufacturing. Based on a cross-national survey of 655 company representatives from the manufacturing industry, our results contribute to a better understanding of why some companies are more determined than others when it comes to implementing AI in their production. We find evidence that organizational factors, such as digital skills, company size, and R&D intensity, have the greatest impact on the adoption of AI in manufacturing. Furthermore, in order to gain new insights into the interplay of new technology adoption and global production strategies, this paper addresses the question of which factors explain a primarily domestic or globally oriented technology adoption. We find that especially research-intensive, knowledge-based and service-oriented companies tend to roll out AI technologies not only at their domestic but also at their foreign production sites.

在当前的讨论中，人工智能 (AI) 被认为对生产过程有很大影响。近年来，对人工智能的研究取得了巨大的发展。然而，大多数研究主要集中在各种人工智能技术上，而不是在公司层面采用人工智能的先决条件和推动因素。这是令人惊讶的，因为许多公司仍在努力在其生产中建立人工智能并推动人工智能的采用。

为了弥补这一差距，本研究分析了在制造业中成功采用人工智能技术的各种技术、组织和环境 (TOE) 先决条件的影响。基于对来自制造业的 655 家公司代表的跨国调查，我们的结果有助于更好地理解为什么有些公司在生产中实施人工智能时比其他公司更加坚定。我们发现有证据表明，组织因素，例如数字技能、公司规模和研发强度，对制造业采用人工智能的影响最大。此外，为了获得对新技术采用和全球生产战略相互作用的新见解，本文解决了哪些因素可以解释主要面向国内或面向全球的技术采用的问题。我们发现，尤其是研究密集型、知识型和服务型公司，往往不仅在国内，而且在国外的生产基地推广人工智能技术。