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There is increasing interest in the connection between Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and operational excellence approaches; however, studies on the integration between Six Sigma (SS) and I4.0 have been absent from the literature. Integration with I4.0 technologies can maximize the positive effects of SS. The purpose of this study is to understand what types of relationships exist between SS and I4.0 and with I4.0's technologies, as well as the benefits derived from this integration and future directions for this field of study.

A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was carried out to analyze studies about connections between I4.0 technologies and SS. SLR analyzed 59 articles from 2013 to 2021 extracted from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, including documents from journals and conferences.

The SLR identified relationships between SS and several I4.0 technologies, the most cited and with the greatest possibilities of relationships being Big Data/Big Data Analytics (BDA) and Internet of Things (IoT). Three main types of relationships were identified: (1) support of I4.0 technologies to SS; (2) assistance from the SS to the introduction of I4.0 technologies, and, to a lesser extent; (3) incompatibilities between SS and I4.0 technologies. The benefits are mainly related to availability of large data sets and real-time information, enabling better decision-making in less time.

In addition, the study can help managers to understand the integration relationships, which may encourage companies to adopt SS/Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in conjunction with I4.0 technologies. The results also drew attention to the incompatibilities between SS and I4.0 to anticipate potential barriers to implementation.

The study focuses on three previously unexplored subjects: the connection between SS and I4.0, the existing relationships with different technologies and the benefits resulting from the relationships. In addition, the study compiled and structured different types of relationships for SS and I4.0 and I4.0's technologies, identifying patterns and presenting evidence on how these relationships occur. Finally, exposes current trends and possible research directions.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate food supply chain stakeholders’ intention to use Industry 5.0 (I5.0) drones for cleaner production in food supply chains.

The authors used a quantitative research design and collected data using an online survey administered to a sample of 264 food supply chain stakeholders in Nigeria. The partial least square structural equation model was conducted to assess the research’s hypothesised relationships.

The authors provide empirical evidence to support the contributions of I5.0 drones for cleaner production. The findings showed that food supply chain stakeholders are more concerned with the use of I5.0 drones in specific operations, such as reducing plant diseases, which invariably enhances cleaner production. However, there is less inclination to drone adoption if the aim was pollution reduction, predicting seasonal output and addressing workers’ health and safety challenges. The findings outline the need for awareness to promote the use of drones for addressing workers’ hazard challenges and knowledge transfer on the potentials of I5.0 in emerging economies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to address I5.0 drones’ adoption using a sustainability model. The authors contribute to existing literature by extending the sustainability model to identify the contributions of drone use in promoting cleaner production through addressing specific system operations. This study addresses the gap by augmenting a sustainability model, suggesting that technology adoption for sustainability is motivated by curbing challenges categorised as drivers and mediators.

The purpose of this study is to test the effect of entrepreneurship education programs (EEPs) on the individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) by considering the innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking dimensions of undergraduate students and the role of these dimensions on the relationship between program inspiration (PI) and entrepreneurial intention (EI).

This study uses a pre- and post-test analysis with data from 1,423 undergraduate students from two emerging countries in Latin America: Colombia and Ecuador. To verify the effect of the EEP on innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking at two-time points, the analysis of median for the difference of two paired populations (Sign Test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test) was used. In addition, structural equation modeling analysis under the covariance and multigroup approach was applied to test the relationship between PI, IEO and EI.

The results of this study show that the EEP enhances innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking whose effects are more prominent in Ecuadorian students. Equally importantly, the EEP benefits represented in PI translate into higher EI through the mediating effect of the IEO dimensions for both the Colombian and Ecuadorian contexts, where the findings suggest no significant differences between two groups.

The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of entrepreneurship education's role in entrepreneurial competence's development and intention by revealing the role of IEO dimensions. This study is one of the first studies that applies the IEO to contribute to the literature on the relationship between entrepreneurship education and intention from an emotional entrepreneurial perspective.