The perspective of capability providers in creating a sustainable I4.0 environment

Alessandra Lardo,Niccolò Paoloni,Daniela Mancini,Giuseppe Russo

doi:10.1108/md-09-2019-1333

Abstract

PurposeWith the increasing pressures towards global sustainability and the transition to Industry 4.0 (I4.0), the collaboration between firms and other key stakeholders is essential. Value is no longer created by firms acting autonomously, but rather by firms acting together with external parties. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the potential contribution of capability providers to a Sustainable I4.0 Environment as an additional perspective regarding the management decisions of a smart and sustainable business model (SSBM) transformation of big corporations.Design/methodology/approachAn in-depth qualitative case study of Futuryng INC., which is a company based in Silicon Valley, New York and Italy, is presented and analysed through interviews, secondary sources and using a triangulation approach. The company is a Connected Technologies Ecosystem, which acts as a provider of technology building blocks (capability) able to design and release end-to-end Information Technologies–Internet of Things–Operational Technologies (IT-IoT-OT) Solutions.FindingsFrom the case study, the authors determine that the success of big corporations' SSBM transformation requires a Sustainable I4.0 Environment approach where capability providers play a relevant role and act as enablers. Then, the authors develop a framework by adopting an actor perspective, called the Sustainable I4.0 Environment, highlighting the contribution of the capability provider in the sustainable I4.0 business model transformation of a big corporation.Practical implicationsThe authors’ analysis clarifies that the successful execution of a sustainable I4.0 business model transformation requires integrated thinking for management decisions and a co-creation approach with capability providers, along with an open innovation process.Originality/valueIn the analysis of I4.0 and sustainability issues, previous studies only focus on implementing firms and view the environment merely as a background in which act forces of sustainability and I4.0. A comprehensive overview of the Sustainable I4.0 Environment, which considers actors and their contribution, is lacking. By integrating the literature review with the case study, the authors’ research proposes a comprehensive framework to guide the decision process of transformation from a traditional business model (TBM) to an SSBM and considers one of the key actors involved, the capability providers.

Highlights

The general economic crisis of the last decade has driven the rethinking of the traditional linear economic model and pushed the search for new sources of economic development
Discussion and framework proposition 5.1 Discussion of results Based on the literature on this topic (Stock and Seliger, 2016, p. 540; Kamble et al, 2018, p. 416), at the macro level, the relationship between sustainability and I4.0 is explained by new business models (BMs), the so-called sustainable business model (SSBM), which are based on a growing intangible component of products and the possibility of developing a value co-creation network regarding a closed-loop product life cycle
The aim of this research was to explore the potential contribution of capability provider in the Sustainable I4.0 Environment as a driver for the management decision of SSBM transformation of big corporations

Summary

Introduction

The general economic crisis of the last decade has driven the rethinking of the traditional linear economic model and pushed the search for new sources of economic development. Most companies are moving towards an extensive application of I4.0 technologies, into their business processes, and are considering SD perspective in their business models (BMs). I4.0 consists of the application of some complementary technologies – the so-called Cyber–Physical Systems (CPSs) – able to connect people, machine and objects into the companies’ BM with the aim to better manage and control the value creation process (Birkel et al, 2019) and the supply chain (Rajput and Singh, 2019a). CPSs are “a new generation of systems with integrated computational and physical capabilities that can interact with humans through many new modalities” (Baheti and Gill, 2011). According to the Triple Bottom Line (Elkington, 1997), SD includes three dimensions: economic (i.e. profitability and efficiency), environmental (i.e. resource consumption and emissions in the natural environment) and social (i.e. respect and inclusion for human and social capital) (Birkel et al, 2019)

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Conclusion