Abstract
The ambiguous nature of the concept of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) has been demonstrated to result in a wide range of interpretations among managers of companies undergoing organisational transformation when implementing I4.0. Previous studies have shown that the broad interpretive space of I4.0 can be laveraged by different stakeholders to address specific organisational needs. However, current research overlooks a detailed analysis of how conceptual ambiguity of I4.0 can become a strategic perception. This study aims to provide initial insights into this issue through an online survey conducted among the executives of industrial SMEs in the Walloon region of Belgium. The preliminary results already unveil seven thematic groups and nine ways of their combinations that can potentially explain the positions of SMEs’ executives towards the main implication of I4.0.