Abstract
The purpose of this study was to provide a case study analysis of the adoption and impact of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies in South African apparel manufacturing firms.
The apparel industry is known to be a labour-intensive industry that is expected to be impacted by advanced technology adoption, however, the literature on whether South African apparel firms are adopting 4IR technologies and their subsequent organisational impact is limited. Therefore, exploring apparel manufacturing firms‟ current position on 4IR adoption and its impact will provide a country-, technology- and industry-specific understanding.
This research was qualitative in approach and was conducted using fieldwork. Fourteen apparel manufacturing firms located in Kwazulu-Natal, the Western Cape and Gauteng were interviewed, using a semi-structured questionnaire to answer the research question and meet the research objectives. Firm directors, CEOs, managing directors and owners were interviewed. The questionnaire contained the following main themes: the location of the business, its years in operation, number of firm employees, firm ownership, daily operations conducted by the firm, products the firm manufactures, the number of factories owned by the firm, whether the firm exports or manufactures solely for the domestic market, the firm‟s main clients and their client‟s industry, the firm‟s high and low production seasons, and the technology the firm has deployed. These themes were selected to understand the nature of South African apparel firms and to consider the impact they have on technology adoption.
The study used the Tornatzky and Fleischer‟s Technology-Organisational and Environmental (TOE) framework (Nguyen, Le &Vu, 2022) and found firms have adopted different, and in some cases, similar technologies. Firms are at various levels of organisational readiness to adopt 4IR technologies and the impact of the adopted technologies has improved firms‟ productivity. The displacement of jobs due to technology deployment has not led to job losses; instead, displaced employees have been shifted to other work tasks. The factors that influence 4IR technology adoption are the adoption cost of technology, complexity and accessibility of technologies, firm tenure and size and managers‟ attitudes.
This study adds value to the apparel industry research, through its firm-level analysis which explores firms‟ organisational and operational characteristics to understand their readiness for 4IR technology adoption. The types of technologies the firms have adopted, how these technologies are used, and their impact on the firms‟ labour and productivity have been detailed in this research.
Keywords: Fourth Industrial Revolution, automation, digital technologies, clothing, apparel, production technologies, technology-organization-environmental framework
JEL codes: O1, O2, O3, O4, O5