The Role of Open Innovation and Value Co-creation in the Challenging Transition from Industry 4.0 to Society 5.0: Toward a Theoretical Framework

Barbara Aquilani, Michela Piccarozzi, Tindara Abbate and Anna Codini
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Barbara Aquilani: Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organization (DEIM), 47, Via del Paradiso, University of ‘Tuscia’, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Michela Piccarozzi: Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organization (DEIM), 47, Via del Paradiso, University of ‘Tuscia’, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Tindara Abbate: Department of Economics, 1, Piazza Pugliatti, University of Messina, 98122 Messina, Italy
Anna Codini: Department of Economics and Management, 74/b, Via S. Faustino, University of Brescia, 25122 Brescia, Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 21, 1-21

Abstract: Advanced manufacturing solutions, augmented reality, and cloud and big data are technologies pertaining to Industry 4.0. These technologies improve working conditions, create new business models, and increase both productivity and firm quality production. However, they can also improve life and society as a whole. This new perspective, oriented toward social and global well-being, is called Society 5.0. As has happened for all past industrial revolutions, Industry 4.0 will support the transition to a different society, i.e., Society 5.0. In this transition, open innovation and value co-creation can play an important role. The aim of the study was twofold: to examine how Industry 4.0 features and enabling technologies can support the transition to Society 5.0 and to investigate the roles of both open innovation and value co-creation within this transition. A conceptual framework was developed to jointly consider for the first time Industry 4.0, Society 5.0, open innovation, and value co-creation, which are all challenging issues that firms must cope with nowadays. Managers could profit from these insights to design ad hoc strategies in order to benefit from the opportunities emerging from this transition and overcome the main related challenges.

Keywords: Industry 4.0; Society 5.0; open innovation; value co-creation; big data; artificial intelligence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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