Interpreting the industry 4.0 future: technology, business, society and people

Abstract

Purpose

Industrial revolutions have been induced by technological advances, but fundamentally changed business and society. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the fourth industrial revolution (I4.0) and derive guidelines for business strategy, it is, therefore, necessary to explore it as a multi-facet phenomenon. Most literature on I4.0, however, takes up a predominantly technical view. This paper aims to report on a project discussing a holistic view on I4.0 and its implications, covering technology, business, society and people.

Design/methodology/approach

Two consecutive group discussions in form of academic world cafés have been conducted. The first workshop gathered multi-disciplinary experts from academia, whose results were further validated in a subsequent workshop including industry representatives. A voting procedure was used to capture participants perspectives.

Findings

The paper develops a holistic I4.0 vision, focusing on five core technologies, their business potential, societal requests and people implications. Based on the model a checklist has been developed, which firms can use a tool to analyze their firm’s situation and draft their industry 4.0 business strategy.

Originality/value

Rather than focusing on technology alone – which by itself is unlikely to make up for a revolution – this research integrates the entire system. In this way, a tool-set for strategy design results.

Citation

Schiele, H., Bos-Nehles, A., Delke, V., Stegmaier, P. and Torn, R.-J. (2022), "Interpreting the industry 4.0 future: technology, business, society and people", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 43 No. 3, pp. 157-167. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBS-08-2020-0181