How Industry 4.0 supports the strategic agility of companies. A systematic literature review

Abstract

The aim of the article is to identify and assess the state of knowledge in the field of using and supporting Industry 4.0 technologies for the development of companies' strategic agility. In particular, it is of keen interest how the individual Industry 4.0 technologies selected by the authors support the attributes that contribute to strategic agility. The article uses a systematic literature review (SLR), and strives in a rigorous and reliable manner to organize knowledge of the use of Industry 4.0 technology in the development of strategic agility. The systematic review research procedure consists of a five-stage approach, including: formulation of the research questions and determination of the research objective, selection of the literature sample, evaluation of the identified papers, data analysis and synthesis, and reporting on the results. The applied research method allowed for synthesis and consolidation of the existing scientific achievements in the field of supporting Industry 4.0 technologies in the development of strategic agility in companies, as well as indication of the most desirable directions for further research. Simultaneously, the research results allowed a reasonable context for future research to be defined. The literature clearly indicates a scarcity of papers in the field of linking Industry 4.0 with the agility of companies, as well as a lack of information on the state of research in this area, both in theoretical and empirical terms. There is a noticeable shortage of studies identifying which Industry 4.0 technologies support the development of strategic agility, to what extent and in what aspects.