Industry 4.0 Base Technologies and Business Models: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Industry 4.0 base technologies allow firms to develop technological innovations that revitalize their innovation processes and reshape their business models. Many studies have been published showing the potential of these technologies in firm’s business model and this number has grown exponentially in the last decade. However, extant research on the topic is particularly fragmented and this huge number of studies calls for a systematic approach to analyse the overall trend in this research field. Therefore, this study presents a bibliometric analysis of scientific publications investigating industry 4.0 base technologies and business models in the business and management fields. We collected 368 documents from the Scopus database and conducted a co-citation analysis to provide an overview of the research about the impact of these technologies on business models. The results reveal the existence of five research themes: smart products (cluster 1); business model innovation (cluster 2); technological platforms (cluster 3); value creation and appropriation (cluster 4); and digital business models (cluster 5). Moreover, this analysis is complemented through bibliographic coupling clustering techniques to track trends and trajectories. Drawing on these analyses, we submit a useful baseline for developing industry 4.0 base technologies and considering their implications for business models.