Winner of the Management Consulting Division Best Doctoral Paper
DOCTORAL PAPER: While the adoption of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies have been extensively studied, there is limited research on the challenges faced by Rust Belt manufacturers with significant legacy manufacturing equipment. Through qualitative, grounded theory research, a theory was developed to explain how successful implementation can be achieved. The research suggests that incremental implementation of IoT technology is both preferred and likely to be more successful. Given the challenges of implementing IoT technologies in predominantly manufacturing-centric regions due to legacy manufacturing equipment, this approach can help small and medium-sized manufacturers remain competitive and technologically relevant.
