Propositions on the Relationships between Technology Complexity, Industry 4.0, and Halal Sustainability

Abstract

Halal industry is currently one of the fastest growing market segments in the world. With the emerging of IR4.0, the future growth of Halal industry and its sustainability can be affected by the advancement of technology. Technology has continuously assimilated in every aspect of our live from consumerization, commercialization, and industrialization to infrastructure. Even though many factors may have collectively contributed towards better understanding of Halal sustainability, this article focuses only on the technological aspects of Halal in the face of IR4.0. With this focus, four components of technology comprising of technoware, humanware, infoware, and orgaware are discussed. Although each components of technology have been fairly studied in the previous Halal literature, most of them were not specifically emphasized on the sustainability issues. From DCs point-of-view, a firm that is capable of managing the complexity in the components of technology will become more sustainable at Halal marketplace under dynamic environment. A framework is proposed to explain how the technology complexity together with the environmental factors (opportunities and threats of IR4.0) can be affecting Halal sustainability. This article has proposed the complexity in each components of technology will positively affect Halal sustainability. Accordingly, the opportunities of IR4.0 is proposed to have a positive direct and moderation effects on the relationships between technology complexity and Halal sustainability, whereas the threats of IR4.0 will have a negative direct and moderation effects on the relationships.