Empirical Pathway of the Influence of Technological Factors on Acceptance to Adopt Industry 4.0 Technology Among Some Selected SMES Within Bauchi State

The general objective of this research works was to assess and validate a Pathway of the Influence of Technological Factors on Acceptance to adopt Industry 4.0 Technology among some selected SMEs within Bauchi State. The increasing use of technology by firms for innovative manufacturing has necessitated the need to further understand the factors that influence the rate of technology adoption by Small and Medium Enterprises SMEs in Nigeria, specifically amongst SMEs in Bauchi State. Unified theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was used as the underpinning theory in this research work. Related literatures by various authors on Industry 4.0 Technology were reviewed, survey research method was adopted. Three formulated research questions were developed into three research hypotheses which guided the study. A structured questionnaire was the instrument used for data gathering and the population for the study was 627 registered SMEs in Bauchi South Senatorial districts while the sample size used was 35 selected SMEs. The Data collected was analyzed using Smart PLS SEM 4.0 and SPSS 20. The findings of the study revealed that, Perceived Relative Advantage (PRA), Perceived Compatibility (PCT) and Perceived Complexity (PCX) were found to be positively and significantly associated with SMEs intention to adopt industry 4.0 technologies. It was concluded that in order to remain competitive, it is important for SMEs to stay up to date with the latest trends in technology and techniques. Among the recommendation was that SMEs should endeavour to adopt the use of industry 4.0 technology facilities so as to maintain high standards of quality production to effectively satisfy the need of their customers.