Towards the industry 4.0: Have ICT services improved the position of Central and Eastern Europe in global production linkages?

Preparing for introduction industry 4.0 requires well-developed areas of services, especially in information and communication technologies (ICT). Therefore, this article identifies the changes of participation in global value chains (GVCs) of manufacturing and services, especially in ICT, in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This study led to the verification of the hypotheses: 1) manufacturing has become an activity that has been losing its position in GVCs steadily; 2) services, especially ICT services, have become a new channel of improvement in CEE countries' relative positions in GVCs. (C) 2021 Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study found that in preparing for the introduction of Industry 4.0, the manufacturing sector in Central and Eastern Europe is gradually losing its position in global value chains, while services, especially information and communication technology services, have become a new avenue for improving relative positions.