One of many roads to industry 4.0? Technology, policy, organisational adaptation and worker experience in ‘Third Italy’ SMEs

Abstract Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is a technological framework and policy programme that emerged in Germany in the 2010s, promising to revitalise manufacturing and revalue work by means of intelligent productive systems. The paradigm's cross‐national diffusion raises questions about its context‐dependent adaptation. This article focuses on the Italian I4.0 programme and its implementation among medium‐sized manufacturing companies in the country's Veneto region. It analyses Italian policy and company strategies through the perceptions and experiences of managers, unionists and workers. The research highlights how a system dominated by small and medium enterprises (SMEs)—one with limited technological investment and without a coordinated system of industrial relations—reshaped the I4.0 policy goals, technological developments and work outcomes. The results show how the features of the productive context are associated with a far less ambitious I4.0 plan, the limited and selective adoption of technology at the level of firms, and modest top‐down organisational changes that do not fulfil the promises of the project.