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Industry 4.0 in Business: The Use of Digital Technologies and Practical Implications

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2024) | Viewed by 3934

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Daniel Pacheco Lacerda

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Escola Politécnica, Programa de Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção, Unisinos 93022.750, Brazil
Interests: Industry 4.0; digital transformation; design science research; theory of constraints
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Cristina Orsolin Klingenberg

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Escola Politécnica, Programa de Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção, Unisinos 93022.750, Brazil
Interests: Industry 4.0; digital transformation; platforms; strategy; agricultural digital transformation
Prof. Dr. Fabio Antonio Sartori Piran

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Escola Politécnica, Programa de Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção, Unisinos 93022.750, Brazil
Interests: Industry 4.0; digital transformation; data envelopment analysis; productivity and efficiency; modularity
Dr. Opdenakker Raymond

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600MB Eindhoven , The Netherlands
Interests: Industry 4.0; design science research; virtual work
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Industry 4.0 is changing production systems, businesses, and value chains. Beyond contributing to process efficiency, the digital technologies enable new ways of providing goods, services, and solutions to the customer, resulting in new revenue sources and forms of competition and collaboration. As new business models with a range of value propositions establish, business ecosystems bloom to enable value creation and raise questions about value capture for different actors. There are plenty of studies exploring Industry 4.0 technical issues and theoretical discussions about business. However, approaches focusing on practical business implications of digitalization are comparatively scarce. Despite some relevant contributions, the stream still lacks more cases which investigate the use of digital technologies in enterprises and its results. These themes are central to strategy and sustainability.

This special issue aims to gather excellent research about applying Industry 4.0 technologies, such as blockchain, the internet of things and big data analytics, to businesses. The call welcomes studies from various disciplines and fields. Research on different sectors, including healthcare, agriculture, retail and consumer goods, banking and financial services, oil and gas, telecommunications, media and entertainment, are welcome. Although broad scientific methods are accepted, we encourage submission of research using design science research, case studies, and experiments.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:

  • Blockchain and smart contracts
  • Blockchain for traceability
  • Digitalization of customer's journey
  • Industry 4.0 and new governance forms
  • Digitalization of value chain
  • Disintermediation of value chains
  • Coopetition: collaboration and competition between players
  • Competition between digital platforms
  • Competition between complementors within platforms

Prof. Dr. Daniel Pacheco Lacerda
Dr. Cristina Orsolin Klingenberg
Prof. Dr. Fabio Antonio Sartori Piran
Dr. Opdenakker Raymond
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Industry 4.0
  • digitalization
  • business models
  • platforms
  • blockchain

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 2226 KiB  
Article
Blockchain Traceability Adoption in Low-Carbon Supply Chains: An Evolutionary Game Analysis
by Chen Zhang, Yaoqun Xu and Yi Zheng
Sustainability 2024, 16(5), 1817; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16051817 - 22 Feb 2024
Viewed by 774
Abstract
Blockchain technology has brought innovation to supply chain management, particularly in managing carbon emissions in the manufacturing sector. However, there is a research gap regarding the policy tools and the role of local governments in implementing blockchain technology to achieve carbon emissions traceability. [...] Read more.
Blockchain technology has brought innovation to supply chain management, particularly in managing carbon emissions in the manufacturing sector. However, there is a research gap regarding the policy tools and the role of local governments in implementing blockchain technology to achieve carbon emissions traceability. Additionally, the strategic relationships and policy implications resulting from the implementation of blockchain technology are not examined systematically. An effective method for examining the strategies used in interactions between supply chain stakeholders and governments is evolutionary game theory, or EGT. This paper employs mathematical modelling and MATLAB 2016 software simulation to examine the decision-making process of manufacturing companies when considering implementing blockchain technology traceability. Specifically, the subjects in the model include product manufacturers (PM), product suppliers (PS), and local governments (LGs). The aim is to examine the decision-making behavior of carbon traceability participants in blockchain technology. This paper analyses the most effective blockchain-based traceability strategies for low-carbon supply chain members under a variety of scenarios by modifying the parameters. The findings suggest the following: (1) Manufacturers and suppliers need to manage the cost of blockchain traceability, collaborate to create an environmentally friendly product certification system, and improve brand image. (2) Local governments should set up efficient reward and punishment systems to incentivize supply chain stakeholders to engage in the blockchain traceability system. The aforementioned discoveries furnish policymakers with guidance to encourage the implementation of blockchain-based carbon footprint traceability technology, thereby establishing a transparent carbon footprint traceability framework across the entire supply chain. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Industry 4.0 in Business: The Use of Digital Technologies and Practical Implications)
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16 pages, 2622 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Emotional Design Based on Industry 4.0 for Industrial Nougat Packaging
by Vicente Casales-Garcia, Ana de las Heras, Amalia Luque and Luis Gonzalez-Abril
Sustainability 2024, 16(4), 1378; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16041378 - 06 Feb 2024
Viewed by 782
Abstract
Nowadays, digitalisation is present in all links of the product life cycle and within product design. Packaging is a critical element that affects the customer’s purchase intention. Therefore, packaging is one of the elements for which it is positive to include techniques and [...] Read more.
Nowadays, digitalisation is present in all links of the product life cycle and within product design. Packaging is a critical element that affects the customer’s purchase intention. Therefore, packaging is one of the elements for which it is positive to include techniques and methods based on Industry 4.0 to obtain results from users and bring them closer to the process. The relationship between packaging and the expected quality and emotions of users is a topic that is addressed in the social axis of sustainability and involves an effort to strengthen the relationship with the user. This article studies the expected quality of nougat in terms of packaging shape and colour using ANOVA analysis. For this purpose, a survey was carried out among 122 participants in Spain and Mexico. The main conclusion is that packaging with a combination of three shapes (rectangle, square and triangle) and colours (yellow, orange and red) enhances consumers’ emotions of Admiration, Satisfaction, Pleasant Surprise, Attraction, Fascination and Joy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Industry 4.0 in Business: The Use of Digital Technologies and Practical Implications)
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Review

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28 pages, 10066 KiB  
Review
Driving Circular Economy through Digital Technologies: Current Research Status and Future Directions
by Ziyuan Chi, Zhen Liu, Fenghong Wang and Mohamed Osmani
Sustainability 2023, 15(24), 16608; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152416608 - 06 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1633
Abstract
The transition from a linear economy (LE) to a circular economy (CE) is not just about mitigating the negative impacts of LE, but also about considering changes in infrastructure, while leveraging the power of technology to reduce resource production and consumption and waste [...] Read more.
The transition from a linear economy (LE) to a circular economy (CE) is not just about mitigating the negative impacts of LE, but also about considering changes in infrastructure, while leveraging the power of technology to reduce resource production and consumption and waste generation, and improve long-term resilience. The existing research suggests that digital technologies (DTs) have great potential to drive the CE. However, despite the exponential growth and increasing interest in studies on DTs and the CE from year 2016 onwards, few systematic studies on the application of DTs to enable the CE have been found. In addition, the current status and development direction of the DT-driven CE is unclear, and the potential of DTs to support CE implementation is under-researched. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the potential of DTs to drive the CE. This paper set out to analyze the current status and development of the DT-driven CE and examine future development trends in the field. Using a systematic literature review approach, this paper is the first attempt to use a mixed method, i.e., to combine macro-quantitative bibliometric methods with a micro-qualitative content analysis method to explore the DT-driven CE. The results, which include the research background, co-occurrence clusters, research hotspots, and development trends of keyword co-occurrence network visualization and keyword burst detection, are presented from a macro perspective using two bibliometric analysis softwares. In addition, the use of 13 specific DTs in the CE is analyzed according to seven disciplinary areas (Environmental Sciences and Ecology, Engineering, Science and Technology and Other Topics, Business Economics, Computer Science, Operations Research and Management Science, and Construction and Building Technology) of greatest interest from a micro-qualitative point of view. Further, future trends and challenges facing DT-driven CE development are explored and feasible directions for solutions are proposed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Industry 4.0 in Business: The Use of Digital Technologies and Practical Implications)
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