Assessing Industry 4.0 Readiness of SME Validated Multidimensional Model

As digital transformation accelerates across industries, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) risk lagging behind larger firms in leveraging technologies.To systematically assess preparedness, this research develops and validates a multifaceted model tailored to measure industry 4.0 readiness among SMEs based on awareness, technology adoption ability, managerial support and customer focus.Grounded in innovation diffusion theory, 31 indicators across five dimensions are rigorously derived using mixed methods, including literature review, expert judgments and confirmatory factor analysis on survey data of 120 SMEs.The unified model provides an actionable assessment to benchmark the digitalization levels of SMEs in developing competitive improvement plans that are aligned with Industry 4.0.