ABSTRACT
The paper discusses the economic and institutional issues of Industry 4.0. The main objective of the research is to discuss selected economic and institutional aspects of the shift in the Polish economy to a successive stage of industrialisation and economic growth in the European Union context. The data was extracted from The Central Statistical Office (Poland) and the International Federation of Robotics. Two research methods were used: descriptive analysis of the structure, direction and dynamics of the fourth industrial revolution, and case study. Research pertaining to the level of automation in Polish manufacturing companies shows that only 15% of factories are fully automated, while 76% indicate partial automation. According to Rifkin’s conception (2012), Poland has not reached the industrial 4.0 revolution stage. A general comparison of German and Polish approaches demonstrates a more practical understanding of the phenomenon in Germany, and a much more theoretical approach in Poland.
