| Abstract [eng] |
The rapid development of Industry 4.0 technologies encourages organizations to invest in advanced technological solutions; however, the implementation of technologies does not always lead to deeper organizational change or the creation of higher added value. In practice, organizations often limit themselves to operational improvements, making it important to understand which organizational processes and learning mechanisms determine whether technological knowledge is transformed into broader organizational transformation. The aim of this thesis is to substantiate a model of absorptive capacity development based on transformative learning mechanisms in order to explain how the assimilation of technological knowledge in organizations does or does not evolve into deeper organizational changes and the creation of higher added value. To achieve this aim, a scientific literature review and an empirical qualitative study were conducted. The study applied a qualitative research strategy, and data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The research involved 13 respondents from 10 engineering industry organizations. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The research results revealed that technological transformation in organizations occurs as a nonlinear, fragmented, and context-sensitive process. Technology implementation is most often initiated in response to specific operational problems, while technological solutions are frequently selected before organizational needs are fully defined. The study found that absorptive capacity processes overlap and develop unevenly in practice. Knowledge assimilation most commonly takes place during technology implementation through practical experience, experimentation, and problem-solving. The findings revealed the dominance of adaptive, single-loop learning, where technologies are primarily integrated into existing practices rather than used to reconfigure organizational logi. Although technology implementation improves process efficiency, data visibility, and decision-making speed, in most cases the resulting changes remain at the operational level and do not evolve into deeper transformations of the business model. The study contributes to absorptive capacity theory by showing that the limitations of technological transformation emerge already in the early stages of problem formulation and technology selection. In this research, transformative learning is interpreted as a distinguishing condition determining whether absorptive capacities are realized at an adaptive level focused on operational efficiency or evolve into deeper transformations of organizational logic. |
