Abstract
The ongoing Industry 4.0 transformation places significant pressures on how businesses create and capture value. Technological advancements such as next-generation mobile communications are reshaping the business ecosystem of Industry 4.0, resulting in emerging business opportunities for new players, such as local operators, to collaborate and compete with mobile communications companies that are implementing I4.0. These changes raise the need to explore emerging business opportunities concerning the digitalization of future factories. New data and connectivity services are introduced to serve the needs of rapidly increasing machine-type communications that rely on connectivity, primarily through the fifth generation (5G) mobile solutions provided by local operators. Thus, this paper outlines the potential value configurations for data and connectivity solutions by identifying, matching, and bridging the utilizable resources and addressable needs within the factory processes. The research applies an exploratory approach and uses the Gioia method to analyze qualitative data of a single case. The study follows the connectivity-content-context-commerce typology (4C) of Internet business models to structure, analyze, and classify the identified needs and resources in future factories from the perspective of the local operator. The findings show that the content layer of 4C business model typology is the most dominant among data and connectivity-based needs and resources of future factories. The paper contributes by presenting four alternative value configurations for digitalization for local operators in the future factory context: the product, component, platform, and complementary businesses. The results suggest content- and context-specific businesses carries foremost business potential for local operators, however quantitative validation will bring fruitful research avenues. Multiple case studies and different data collection methods may also be considered in future studies.
Highlights
The increased demand of integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) within manufacturing industry has paved the way for the fourth industrial revolution, commonly known as Industry 4.0 (I4.0) [1,2]
The 5G network infrastructure serves a key function for digital transformation and is paving the way for the exploitation of new business opportunities and the mitigation of entry barriers for new entrants to compete with existing players in the telecommunication business ecosystem [12]
The search was initiated by pinpointing the usable resources and achievable needs that were confined in future factories [27]
Summary
The increased demand of integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) within manufacturing industry has paved the way for the fourth industrial revolution, commonly known as Industry 4.0 (I4.0) [1,2]. Considerable advancements in I4.0 technologies, such as cyber-physical systems (CPS—the integration of computers, networks, and processes) and the Internet of Things (IoT—a system of inter-related physical objects), aiming at efficient data exchange force modern businesses to shift towards smart factories and adopt to the implementation of high-end technologies [6] that are expected to increase their competitiveness. Secure data exchange and transparent communication mainly comes from the implementation of advanced technologies such as the fifth generation of mobile networks (5G) which meet the requirements for massive and ultra-reliable machine-type communications [8] of future factories. The 5G network infrastructure serves a key function for digital transformation and is paving the way for the exploitation of new business opportunities and the mitigation of entry barriers for new entrants to compete with existing players in the telecommunication business ecosystem [12]
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