PONE-D-24-42283Industry 4.0 Readiness and Strategic Plan Failures in SMEs: A Comprehensive AnalysisPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. IQBAL,

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Syed Hamid Hussain Madni

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1:  Abstract

1. The abstract lacks a clear introduction and problem statement. Please revise it to follow a structured format, including Background, Problem, Objective, Methods, and Results. Restructure the abstract to align with the standard format: Introduction, Problem Statement, Methodology, Results, and Conclusion.

Keywords

Please rewrite the keywords, ensuring that the first word is capitalized (e.g., Technology Adoption). Additionally, consider incorporating "Malaysia" or "Malaysian SMEs" to enhance searchability for region-specific research.

Introduction:

The author should elaborate on the relationship between NIMP 2030 and the Industry4WRD program earlier in this section.

Please include more recent statistics regarding the contribution of SMEs to Malaysia's GDP and employment.

Study Contribution, Research Questions and paper organization is missing in the introduction. Please ensure to:

1. Include a clear statement of the study's contribution and research question to the field.

2. Provide a brief overview of the paper's organization.

Literature Review:

The literature review provides a good foundation but could be further enhanced by:

1. Organizing the content into subsections, such as Industry 4.0 Concepts, SME Challenges, and Readiness Assessment Frameworks.

2. Including more recent references, particularly from 2024, to demonstrate the latest developments in the field.

3. The paper does not explicitly outline the research gap in the related works section. The author should compare the research gap with existing studies, providing a more critical analysis of the literature to highlight the gaps this study aims to fill. To write a clearer research gap in the related work section, the author may refer to the following manuscripts for guidance:

i. E-learning behavioral intention among college students: A comparative study. Education and Information Technologies, pp.1-23.

ii. Factors Influencing the Adoption of Industrial IoT for Manufacturing and Production SMEs in Developing Countries, IET Collaborative Intelligent Manufacturing, 6(1), p.e12093.

iii. IoT adoption model for e-learning in higher education institutes: a case study in Saudi Arabia. Sustainability, 15(12), p.9748.

iv. An empirical investigation of critical factors affecting acceptance of e-learning platforms: A learner’s perspective. SN Computer Science, 4(3), p.240.

v. Assessing the Prioritization of Key Influencing Factors for Industrial IoT Readiness in SMEs. International Conference of Reliable Information and Communication Technology. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2023.

Methodology:

The methodology is well-structured but could be improved by:

1. Providing more details on the sampling strategy (e.g., how the 506 SMEs were selected).

2. Explaining the rationale behind the 0-4 scale used in the readiness assessment.

3. Describing the specific statistical tests employed in the analysis, beyond just mentioning Python libraries.

4. Addressing potential limitations or biases in the data collection process.

Results:

The results section presents findings clearly but could be enhanced by:

1. Providing additional context for interpreting the readiness scores (e.g., what constitutes a "good" score?).

2. Including confidence intervals or p-values to support the statistical significance of the findings.

3. Explaining why certain sectors (e.g., Chemicals and Chemical Products) exhibit higher readiness.

Conclusion:

2. Discuss the broader implications of the findings for developing economies.

3. Suggest specific areas for future research based on the study's limitations or unanswered questions.

General Comments:

1. The paper would benefit from a thorough proofreading to address minor grammatical and typographical errors. Additionally, enhance the visual presentation of data by employing more varied and informative chart types.

2. Consider having the manuscript professionally proofread for language and clarity.

3. Verify that all figures are properly attached and referenced in the text.

4. Ensure consistent formatting of headings and subheadings throughout the paper.

Reviewer #2:  1. Abstract Failed to demonstrate the background ,purpose, methodology, contribution of paper...need to rewrite

2. Introduction section lacks to show the need of this research work, Contribution of the paper etc.

3. Paper organization is missing in introduction section.

4. Literature review should discuss the current literature and critically analyse the literature, and show the need of your point of view in writing this research work.

5. The methodology section is incomplete. Does not discuss the method... Rather repeating the same literature review as of introductions action

6. Insufficient results and discussion.

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Reviewer #1: Yes:  Sajid Shah

Reviewer #2: No

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PONE-D-24-42283R1Industry 4.0 Readiness and Strategic Plan Failures in SMEs: A Comprehensive AnalysisPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. IQBAL,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Mar 28 2025 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org . When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols . Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols .

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Sanmugam Annamalah

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: 1. Introduction section lacks to show the need of this research work. same text is repeated in methodology section and introduction section.

2. Literature review should discuss the current literature and critically analyse the literature.

3. The methodology section is incomplete. Does not discuss the method... need to describe the factors,whats items are included in data collection etc

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If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy .

Reviewer #2: No

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[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/ . PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org . Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Industry 4.0 Readiness and Strategic Plan Failures in SMEs: A Comprehensive Analysis

PONE-D-24-42283R2

Dear Dr. Iqbal,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Ali Junaid Khan, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: (Ghobakhloo, 2020a, b). There are two references in Bibliography (Ghobakhloo, 2020a, Ghobakhloo, 2020b). Need to Synchronize

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean? ). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy .

Reviewer #2: No

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