To ensure comparability, the team implemented a standardized data collection protocol across all countries. Data collectors included national statistical agencies in Malawi, Poland, and Vietnam; public-private institutions such as the State Industry Association (FIEC) in Ceará, Brazil; and specialized data collection firms in the remaining countries, with the sampling frame provided by national statistical offices. The same protocols were followed, as specified in a standard terms of reference for implementation. For each country, each survey item was professionally translated from English to the local language and back again, with interactions and revisions from World Bank team members who are fluent or native speakers in the local language.20 The FAT data were collected through both face-to-face interviews and by telephone. The analyses presented in this book are performed using sampling weights. When computing cross-country analysis, the weights were rescaled so that all countries are equally weighted. See appendix A for more details about the FAT data and the weights used. The richness of these data sets, over the period of 2019–21, offers a unique perspective to explore new questions and provide new evidence on the adoption and use of technology by firms. The next section uses the FAT data to illustrate the importance of granular measures of technologies used by firms to explain why some of the standard measures of technology provide a limited perspective.
Using the FAT Data to Understand Some of the Limitations of Standard Measures of Technology In addition to measuring technologies at the business function level, the FAT survey also provides standard measures of GPTs. These measures include access to and quality of electricity, and use of ICT (such as mobile phones, computers, and the internet), as well as advanced digital technologies (such as cloud computing, robots, big data, and AI). These measures also provide an overall perspective on access to infrastructure and the conditions that enable technology use. Thus, before going into the specifics of technologies linked with business functions, the next section provides a general perspective on where firms in developing countries stand with respect to the adoption of technologies that are usually associated with different stages of industrial revolution. The section also explains the reason why these measures provide a limited perspective of the level of technology sophistication of firms, and the importance of linking the use of technologies to specific functions within a firm, as proposed by the FAT survey.
The Incomplete Transition from Industry 2.0 to Industry 4.0 in Developing Countries Different stages of technological transitions, popularly defined as Industry 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0, are associated with the diffusion of disruptive GPTs. Industry 2.0 encompasses the A New Approach to Measure Technology Adoption by Firms
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