Competitiveness and R&D Subsidies: The Case of the Industry 4.0 Program in Portugal

Objective: the objective of this study was to analyze the effects on industrial competitiveness of the subsidies related to the Industry 4.0 Program in Portugal from 2017 to 2019. The following research question arises in this context: What is the influence of the incentive value on the competitiveness of Portuguese industries after the implementation of the Industry 4.0 technology-enabling projects? Methods: the methodological approach of the study is correlational in nature, and it seeks to establish relationships between the Industry 4.0 incentive value and competitiveness in order to identify the role of funds/subsidies in the competitiveness of Industry 4.0 in Portugal. The study relied on the use of non-parametric statistical techniques. Kendall’s rank correlation coefficient, the Fisher test, and the Wilkinson test were used to interpret the results. Results and Conclusions: according to the presented results, the central hypothesis of this study is accepted, since the factors that make up the Industry 4.0 — European fund — incentive value dimension have an association with the degree of competitiveness (operating revenue, number of employees, total factor productivity — TFP, gross value added, EBITDA, and net profit) in the 2017-2019 period.