Purpose

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive, systematic review of the literature on Industry 4.0 – and on the trends and implications of the digitalization of manufacturing – from the perspective of business and economics.

Design/methodology/approach

A bibliometric methodology was used, allowing to extract rigorously the relevant literature, leading to a purposefully constructed database of peer-reviewed publications depicting the state of the art in this area. A quantitative analysis of the key characteristics of – and trends emanating from – the literature was performed, and results were presented in a graphic way using the VOSViewer software as a mapping tool. Relevant thematic clusters were identified, and promising future research avenues were identified.

Findings

This literature is extremely recent – 90% of the publications are from 2019 and 2020, and the leading journal publishing in this area is the Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management. Key clusters identified relate digital transformation to value chains; a close link is observed between Industry 4.0 technologies and business models; a strong connection to sustainability is also clear; and the implications of Industry 4.0 for human resources management are, not surprisingly, extremely relevant.

Originality/value

This is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the most comprehensive systematic review linking specifically Industry 4.0 to the business and economics literature, bridging with recent, state-of-the-art research in the economics/business and technological fields. This contribution may be very helpful to researchers interested in understanding the key trends and opportunities offered by this area.

中文翻译：

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工业 4.0：从商业和经济角度看制造业的未来——文献计量学文献综述

目的

本文旨在从商业和经济的角度对有关工业 4.0 的文献以及制造业数字化的趋势和影响进行全面、系统的回顾。

设计/方法/方法

使用了文献计量方法，可以严格提取相关文献，从而建立一个有目的地构建的同行评审出版物数据库，描述该领域的最新技术。对文献的关键特征和趋势进行了定量分析，并使用 VOSViewer 软件作为绘图工具以图形方式呈现结果。确定了相关的主题集群，并确定了有前途的未来研究途径。

发现

这些文献是最新的——90% 的出版物来自 2019 年和 2020 年，该领域的主要期刊出版是《制造技术管理杂志》。确定的关键集群将数字化转型与价值链联系起来；工业 4.0 技术和商业模式之间存在密切联系；与可持续性的密切联系也很明显；毫不奇怪，工业 4.0 对人力资源管理的影响极为相关。

原创性/价值

据作者所知，这是最全面的系统综述，将工业 4.0 与商业和经济学文献具体联系起来，与经济学/商业和技术领域的最新研究相结合。这一贡献可能对有兴趣了解该领域提供的主要趋势和机会的研究人员非常有帮助。