The progress of digitalization in Mexico: effects on the institutional structure

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to discuss how industrial and innovation processes in Mexico address the new challenges of the current industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) on production, work practices, public-private collaborative research and the creation of new relational and production capabilities. The work uses data obtained from a questionnaire applied to qualified informants of firms and intermediary organisations in Mexico, looking for their perspectives on the productive incorporation of new digital technologies. The analysed organisations were selected through a theoretical sample (not statistically representative). The analysis carried out takes precautions before the possible bias derived from the selected organisations. Our results show that the perspectives of the actors of the Mexican innovation system, highlights serious limitations in terms of technical and organisational skills of firms to incorporate digital technologies in production processes. The study provides a first exploratory analysis on the visions of the agents involved on the technical and organisational challenges of the new digital technologies. Additionally, this paper provides new analytical inputs to reflect on the potential opportunities of the Mexican firms to adopt these new technical trends and institutional and governance critical aspects for a debate about a national agenda of new industrial and innovation policies.