Industry 4.0: A bibliometric review of its managerial intellectual structure and potential evolution in the service industries

Abstract

The “industry 4.0" phenomenon is expected to influence almost every aspect of business value chains, and hence it has been increasingly analyzed by management scholars. However, the overarching intellectual structure emerging from this new stream of literature has not yet been synthesized in a framework nor critically discussed. Furthermore, despite being part of the rhetoric in several recent industrial governmental plans, industry 4.0 in service sectors has not been systematically reviewed to date. By leveraging a systematic quantitative literature review, a data-driven approach and a quantitative methodology—embedding both bibliographic coupling and network analysis techniques—this study provides a clear visualization of the emerging intellectual structure of industry 4.0 in management studies. We also develop a framework based on the most recurrent themes emerging from the results of bibliometric and network analyses—the latter could be used by management scholars to understand studies surrounding industry 4.0. As service businesses can create and capture value generated through the 4th Industrial Revolution as well as manufacturing firms, we suggest that scholarly attention should also be directed toward the service industries and provide a research agenda.