# Readiness of Enterprises in Czech Republic to Implement Industry 4.0: Index of Industry 4.0
## 3 Materials and Methods  
The main aim of the paper was to analyze the readiness of enterprises to implement Industry 4.0 in the period 2018-2019. The first partial aim of the paper was to compile an index of evaluation of the level of Industry 4.0 in enterprises based on the results of a survey. The second partial aim was the statistical verification of the consistency of the index with further results from the questionnaire survey. The preparation of the research sample firstly included the identification of the number of enterprises used for the questionnaire survey. Based on CSU (Czech Statistical Office) data, it was found that, in the Czech Republic, there were 175,894 enterprises in the manufacturing industry in 2017, of which 7.1% were small, medium, and large enterprises, i.e., a total of 12,470 subjects [102]. Approximately 2500 enterprises were approached to ensure that a 95% confidence level condition was met at a 5% margin of error and at a discarded 15% return on the questionnaires. The data were collected on the basis of interviews with business managers, firstly addressed electronically. Of the total number of respondents, 314 enterprises agreed to cooperate and participate in a questionnaire survey with a return rate of 12.5%. The authors of the paper and university students were present at the meetings with the enterprises and in the process of completing the questionnaires. The establishment of the research was approached in two stages (two research waves): first in February-March 2018 and then in January-May 2019. As part of Industry 4.0 research, the research sample consisted of 276 enterprises reporting their data (38 out of 314 questionnaires were excluded based on these criteria: at least 10 employees, one year on the market, and completeness of survey). The amount of obtained data was further specified in terms of business characteristics, i.e., size and technology demands (Table 1). The first wave of the research was used to create the Industry 4.0 index (VPi4), whereas the second wave of the research was used to check and compare the results achieved. Characteristics of the research samples according to the research waves were as follows:  
* First wave of research (year 2018)--164 enterprises (60% of data sample);
* Second wave of research (year 2019)--112 enterprises (40% of data sample). Table 1 describes the research sample in terms of the size of the enterprises and their technological intensity. Classification of the enterprises by size was based on the number of employees of the enterprise, as defined by the methodology of the European Commission [103]. Table 1 shows that, in the first wave sample, there were 39.0% small enterprises, 28.7% medium-sized enterprises, and 32.3% large enterprises as the most common. The composition of enterprises in the second wave of research was very similar. Table 1 shows the distribution of enterprises in terms of their technological intensity, with the enterprises with higher technological intensity (HTI) and the enterprises with lower technological intensity (LTI) according to the methodology of the Czech Statistical Office [102]. In the Czech Republic and in our research in both waves, the groups were comparable. The only difference was the representation of the enterprises from the low-tech sector (LTS) and medium low-tech sector (MLTS) in the area with lower technological intensity in the first and second waves of research. * HTI: Engineering and electro-technical production (CZ-NACE groups 24-30), chemical, paper, and non-metallic production (CZ-NACE groups 17-23). * LTI: Production of products for domestic use (CZ-NACE Groups 13-16, 31-32), food production industry (CZ-NACE Groups 10-12). The questionnaire focused on main groups of Industry 4.0 characteristics (observed phenomena). The items of the questionnaire were defined with the support of 34 managers and their expert evaluation within the framework of the qualitative research.