Main Guidelines for the Change Strategy of SMEs in the Context of Industrialization 4.0

Abstract

Industry 4.0 brings with it irreversible transformation processes hitherto unknown to the world.  The need for business transformation becomes obvious. The introduction of new technologies changes all aspects of business activities: structure, systems, personnel, procedures and rules, goals and objectives, corporate culture, and relationships with other elements of business: suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Often it is a question of changing the business model, which fundamentally changes all the principles of the company's activity. In this context there is a serious question: what change strategy to apply for its successful implementation. How will this strategy differ from the usual understanding of strategy and what are the factors of its success? Therefore, the purpose of this study is to justify an approach to change strategy in the context of instability, dynamism and fragility associated with Industrialization 4.0. The hypothesis of the study is the assumption that strategy in the classical view can no longer produce such an effect and therefore the new digital strategy is fundamentally different from previous approaches. The methods of this study are: the analysis of concepts and synthesis of theories of change management and strategic management, also an empirical study was conducted to identify the peculiarities of change implementation in small and medium-sized enterprises in the Republic of Moldova, after which conclusions and recommendations were substantiated in the field of changing the approach to change strategy in these companies.  As conclusions, the main directions of change strategy development for SMEs in the Republic of Moldova are discussed.