From Adoption to Performance: A Necessary and Configurational Perspective on Smart Manufacturing

Smart Manufacturing (SM) promises to transform traditional production systems into autonomous, interconnected, and data-driven networks. Despite its potential, many firms struggle to translate SM adoption into tangible performance gains. This study employs the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework to examine how technological, organizational, and environmental factors should be deployed to achieve SM performance benefits. Using survey data from 234 automotive component firms, we integrate Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). NCA findings show that organizational factors constitute necessary conditions for performance improvements, while fsQCA reveals multiple configurations of TOE conditions that lead to high performance outcomes.