Examinando por Autor "Torrent-i-Sellens, Joan"

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Impact of robotics on manufacturing: A longitudinal machine learning perspective
(Elsevier, 2021-01-02) Ballestar, María Teresa; Díaz-Chao, Ángel; Torrent-i-Sellens, Joan; Sainz, Jorge
The evaluation of the impact of the adoption of industrial robotics on business is increasingly relevant in the current context of digital transformation. Although many companies are eager to adopt these technologies as a means to increase productivity, some concerns have been raised about the cost impact of the transformation, and its effect on the workforce. A growing body of literature is studying these phenomena but according to our review of it, there is no longitudinal perspective over 25 years illustrating the relationship between the attitude of companies to robotics and principal business indicators. This investigation uses an innovative machine learning model comprising an automated nested longitudinal clustering performed in two stages, and it is applied over a large sample of 4,578 companies from the Business Strategy Survey conducted by the Spanish Ministry of Finance and Public Administration. The findings of this research are novel in this field not only because of the longitudinal modelling applied in two stages but also because of the understanding of how companies’ characteristics and performance evolve over time depending on their degree of adoption of robotics. This knowledge is relevant for companies to understand the impact of their transformation to robotics. It also allows for the development of strategies that boost the efficiency of the companies, provides them with tools to protect them from negative financial events, and leads to an optimal sizing of their workforce.
Knowledge, robots and productivity in SMEs: Explaining the second digital wave
(Elsevier, 2020-01-02) Ballestar, María Teresa; Díaz-Chao, Ángel; Torrent-i-Sellens, Joan; Sainz, Jorge
This study provides new insights into the link among knowledge, industrial robotics and labor productivity by testing 12 hypotheses on samples of 1,515 and 1,380 Spanish manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in 2008 and 2015. Our research has resulted in four main statements: Firsty, robotic devices are associated with better performance, higher productivity and employment rates, as well as with a more knowledge-intensive value process. Secondly, in 2015, robotics accounted for a 5% increase of SME productivity level (2% in 2008). Thirdly, between 2008 and 2015, SME labor productivity models have progressively granted greater relevance to multi-factor productivity components (knowledge flows and the use of robotics) and human capital. Finally, robot use has generated new complementarity relationships among the explanatory factors of labour productivity. In already-robotized SMEs, the knowledge spillover relates with more favorable effects of capital deepening and exports and to human capital in the non-robotized SMEs.