TY - JOUR
T1 - Leveraging industry 4.0 – A business model pattern framework
AU - Weking, Jörg
AU - Stöcker, Maria
AU - Kowalkiewicz, Marek
AU - Böhm, Markus
AU - Krcmar, Helmut
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Authors
PY - 2020/7
Y1 - 2020/7
N2 - Industry 4.0 (I4.0), also known as the fourth industrial revolution, describes the digitalization of manufacturing industries. The transition to I4.0 is crucial for manufacturing firms to sustain competitive advantage and seize new opportunities. Most research has focused on the technological aspects of I4.0 in the form of product and process innovations. Despite I4.0's rising attention from both researchers and practitioners, little research exists about I4.0 business model (BM) innovation, even though BM innovations can be more successful than product or process innovations. To address this research gap, we analyze 32 case studies of I4.0 BM innovators. We develop a taxonomy to characterize I4.0 BMs and derive 13 patterns of I4.0 BMs by applying the taxonomy to the case studies. Three super-patterns are identified: integration, servitization, and expertization. Integration innovates a BM with new processes and integrates parts of the supply chain. New combined products and services are the basis for servitization. Expertization is a hybrid of product- and process-focused BMs, which includes consulting services and multi-sided platforms. This study contributes to research with a framework for describing, analyzing, and classifying BMs for I4.0. The findings deepen the understanding of how I4.0 impacts ecosystem roles, BMs, and service systems. Archetypal patterns show how firms can leverage I4.0 concepts and build a conceptual basis for future research. The taxonomy supports practitioners in evaluating the I4.0-readiness of their existing BM. The patterns additionally illustrate opportunities for becoming an I4.0 firm.
AB - Industry 4.0 (I4.0), also known as the fourth industrial revolution, describes the digitalization of manufacturing industries. The transition to I4.0 is crucial for manufacturing firms to sustain competitive advantage and seize new opportunities. Most research has focused on the technological aspects of I4.0 in the form of product and process innovations. Despite I4.0's rising attention from both researchers and practitioners, little research exists about I4.0 business model (BM) innovation, even though BM innovations can be more successful than product or process innovations. To address this research gap, we analyze 32 case studies of I4.0 BM innovators. We develop a taxonomy to characterize I4.0 BMs and derive 13 patterns of I4.0 BMs by applying the taxonomy to the case studies. Three super-patterns are identified: integration, servitization, and expertization. Integration innovates a BM with new processes and integrates parts of the supply chain. New combined products and services are the basis for servitization. Expertization is a hybrid of product- and process-focused BMs, which includes consulting services and multi-sided platforms. This study contributes to research with a framework for describing, analyzing, and classifying BMs for I4.0. The findings deepen the understanding of how I4.0 impacts ecosystem roles, BMs, and service systems. Archetypal patterns show how firms can leverage I4.0 concepts and build a conceptual basis for future research. The taxonomy supports practitioners in evaluating the I4.0-readiness of their existing BM. The patterns additionally illustrate opportunities for becoming an I4.0 firm.
KW - Business model
KW - Case study
KW - Industry 4.0
KW - Internet of things (IoT)
KW - Patterns
KW - Taxonomy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85076980761&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.107588
DO - 10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.107588
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85076980761
SN - 0925-5273
VL - 225
JO - International Journal of Production Economics
JF - International Journal of Production Economics
M1 - 107588
ER -