scholarly journals Industrial Revolutions and their impact on managerial practice: Learning from the past

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 462-478
Author(s):  
Lucia Kohnová ◽  
Nikola Salajová

Technological changes that come with industrial revolution have largely affected businesses, as well as society. With the current technological shift and Fourth Industrial Revolution, many questions arise regarding the impacts and effects on current ways businesses operate. This study presents a retrospective analysis and overview of previous industrial revolutions. The aim of the retrospective analysis is to identify common characteristics that may lead to lessons learned for the forthcoming Fourth Industrial Revolution and thus complement the current debate on technological change. All previous industrial revolutions have led to change in business environments and new challenges for managers and owners. The findings show that all previous revolutions have led to increase in the number of service jobs created. The key approach of successful countries during the times of industrial revolution has included education as the source of new skills and knowledge necessary for adaption. Countries that were able to produce high skilled people could not only invent, but also adapt to new technologies sooner than others. Similarly, these approaches included introduction of new managerial practices in order to be able to utilize new technologies and new skilled workers effectively. The research article processes secondary data together with literature review on this topic.

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-113
Author(s):  
Kornelia Lazanyi ◽  
Maya Lambovska

Industrial revolution refers to a period in human history in which revolutionary scientific discoveries and inventions that affect the functioning of society as a whole take place. Changes resulting from industrial revolutions sooner or later affect all sectors of the economy. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, has brought with it many changes. Industry 4.0 has spread rapidly and has become a current phenomenon. Within the theoretical part of the contribution, the authors deal with development, definition, and comparison of industrial revolutions. The aim of the contribution is to examine the readiness of the Visegrad Four countries for changes connected with Industry 4.0. Several national initiatives responding to Industry 4.0 have been launched across Europe in recent years. Their purpose is to regulate the realization of Industry 4.0 and its consequences. Almost every member state of the European Union has its own national initiative, responding to Industry 4.0. Within the practical part of the contribution, authors focused on initiatives responding to Industry 4.0 in the V4 countries. To examine the readiness of the V4 countries for the challenges related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution - Industry 4.0, secondary data - The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) - was used, as well as a z-score calculation. The resulting z-scores show which countries currently achieve the best results in terms of the Drivers of Production values when compared to the GDP per capita. To see how each country is doing compared to the mean value of the respective indicators, z-scores were calculated for each of them.


Author(s):  
Klaus Schwab

The rapid pace of technological developments played a key role in the previous industrial revolutions. However, the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) and its embedded technology diffusion progress is expected to grow exponentially in terms of technical change and socioeconomic impact. Therefore, coping with such transformation require a holistic approach that encompasses innovative and sustainable system solutions and not just technological ones. In this article, we propose a framework that can facilitate the interaction between technological and social innovation to continuously come up with proactive, and hence timely, sustainable strategies. These strategies can leverage economic rewards, enrich society at large, and protect the environment. The new forthcoming opportunities that will be generated through the next industrial wave are gigantic at all levels. However, the readiness for such revolutionary conversion require coupling the forces of technological innovation and social innovation under the sustainability umbrella.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seeram Ramakrishna ◽  
Alfred Ngowi ◽  
Henk De Jager ◽  
Bankole O. Awuzie

Growing consumerism and population worldwide raises concerns about society’s sustainability aspirations. This has led to calls for concerted efforts to shift from the linear economy to a circular economy (CE), which are gaining momentum globally. CE approaches lead to a zero-waste scenario of economic growth and sustainable development. These approaches are based on semi-scientific and empirical concepts with technologies enabling 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) and 6Rs (reuse, recycle, redesign, remanufacture, reduce, recover). Studies estimate that the transition to a CE would save the world in excess of a trillion dollars annually while creating new jobs, business opportunities and economic growth. The emerging industrial revolution will enhance the symbiotic pursuit of new technologies and CE to transform extant production systems and business models for sustainability. This article examines the trends, availability and readiness of fourth industrial revolution (4IR or industry 4.0) technologies (for example, Internet of Things [IoT], artificial intelligence [AI] and nanotechnology) to support and promote CE transitions within the higher education institutional context. Furthermore, it elucidates the role of universities as living laboratories for experimenting the utility of industry 4.0 technologies in driving the shift towards CE futures. The article concludes that universities should play a pivotal role in engendering CE transitions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 10448
Author(s):  
Riccardo Karim Khamaisi ◽  
Elisa Prati ◽  
Margherita Peruzzini ◽  
Roberto Raffaeli ◽  
Marcello Pellicciari

The fourth industrial revolution is promoting the Operator 4.0 paradigm, originating from a renovated attention towards human factors, growingly involved in the design of modern, human-centered processes. New technologies, such as augmented reality or collaborative robotics are thus increasingly studied and progressively applied to solve the modern operators’ needs. Human-centered design approaches can help to identify user’s needs and functional requirements, solving usability issues, or reducing cognitive or physical stress. The paper reviews the recent literature on augmented reality-supported collaborative robotics from a human-centered perspective. To this end, the study analyzed 21 papers selected after a quality assessment procedure and remarks the poor adoption of user-centered approaches and methodologies to drive the development of human-centered augmented reality applications to promote an efficient collaboration between humans and robots. To remedy this deficiency, the paper ultimately proposes a structured framework driven by User eXperience approaches to design augmented reality interfaces by encompassing previous research works. Future developments are discussed, stimulating fruitful reflections and a decisive standardization process.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 137-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Kohnová ◽  
Ján Papula ◽  
Nikola Salajová

Radical changes resulting from the Fourth Industrial Revolution strongly affect industrialized European countries. In particular, due to the new technologies that are characteristic of Industry 4.0, it will be essential for companies to make the necessary changes and achieve competitiveness through the implementation of these technologies. In order for companies to be able to make radical changes and innovations, they need to secure all the supporting areas in their organization. This research paper is focused on comparison of companies from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and Switzerland in the context of readiness for Industry 4.0. This research was part of a research project, while data were collected in the period of 2015–2016. We have analysed companies from selected countries based on 7 areas which are closely interconnected with the business transformation and technology transformation coming from Industry 4.0. The main analysed questions focused on areas such as employee education and training, organizational culture, strategy, or organizational processes, that will be most affected by radical changes in the environment. Research has highlighted the differences between countries as a result of long-standing cultural differences, but at the same time identified the unified influence of the ongoing global debate on the need for technological innovation. With Slovak and Czech companies being below stronger innovators in the maturity of education systems, we strongly advise considering partnering in education which can bring valuable information to businesses that want to take on the wave of innovation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 42-48
Author(s):  
Yulia Matyuk

The article analyzes the risks and new opportunities that arise before man and modern society in the light of the development of artificial intelligence and robotics in the conditions of the fourth industrial revolution. The rapid development of AI indicates the absence of uniform approaches to assessing the risks and prospects associated with the use of AI. Using PESTEL analysis, the article examines the key areas of interaction between AI and humans, new challenges and prospects that open to humanity in the era of new technologies.


Author(s):  
Yelyzaveta Snitko ◽  
Yevheniia Zavhorodnia

The development of a modern economy, in the context of the fourth industrial revolution, is impossible without the accumulation and development of human capital, since the foundation of the transformation of the economic system in an innovative economy is human capital. In this regard, the level of development and the efficiency of using human capital are of paramount importance. This article attempts to assess the role of human capital in the fourth industrial revolution. In the future, human talent will play a much more important role in the production process than capital. However, it will also lead to a greater division of the labor market with a growing gap between low-paid and high-paid jobs, and will contribute to an increase in social tensions. Already today, there is an increase in demand for highly skilled workers, especially in high-income countries, with a decrease in demand for workers with lower skills and lower levels of education. Analysis of labor market trends suggests that the future labor market is a market where there is simultaneously a certain demand for both higher and lower skills and abilities, combined with the devastation of the middle tier. The fourth industrial revolution relies heavily on the concept of human capital and the importance of finding complementarity between human and technology. In assessing the impact of the fourth industrial revolution, the relationship between technology, economic growth and human resources was examined. The analysis was carried out in terms of three concepts of economic growth, technological change and human capital. Human capital contributes to the advancement of new technologies, which makes the concept of human capital an essential factor in technological change. The authors emphasize that the modern economy makes new demands on workers; therefore it is necessary to constantly accumulate human capital, develop it through continuous learning, which will allow the domestic economy to enter the trajectory of sustainable economic growth. The need to create conditions for a comprehensive increase in the level of human capital development is noted.


After the analysis of evolutionary institutional changes, the fourth chapter will define revolutionary transformations. Revolutions, conceptualized as abrupt processes of social transformation, follow specific life-cycle and result from two main reasons: lack of efficiency and social justice. The chapter is structured as follows. In the first part, the author will provide a general overview of revolutions and revolutionary processes, discussing in detail its main classifications, characteristics and causes, leading actors, overall phases, and outcomes. The second part will outline different revolutionary processes, zooming on scientific revolutions, technology revolutions, and industrial revolutions. There, industrial revolutions and its main elements are investigated in detail, showing how technological innovations lead to dramatic changes of the social reality. By comparing characteristics of the first, second, and third industrial revolutions, there is proposed a model defining the elements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Finally, there is discussed a model outlining how of industrial revolutions can change and transform the social institutions.


Author(s):  
Denis Trcek

Security as we perceive it today became a topic of research with the introduction of networked information systems, or networked ISs, in the early 1980s. In the mid-1990s the proliferation of the Internet in the business area exposed security as one of the key factors for successful online business, and the majority of efforts to provide it were focused on technology. However, due to lessons learned during this period, the paradigms have since changed, with increasing emphasis on human factors. It is a fact that security of networked ISs is becoming part of the core processes in all e-business environments. While data is clearly one of the key assets and has to be protected accordingly, ISs have to be highly integrated and open. Appropriate treatment of these contradictory issues is not a trivial task for managers of contemporary intelligent organizations. It requires new approaches, especially in light of new technologies.


Author(s):  
Adeyinka Tella ◽  
Oluwakemi Titilola Olaniyi ◽  
Aderinola Ololade Dunmade

The chapter looked at records management in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) with the challenges and the way forward. The chapter discussed the industrial revolutions, records management, and the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), and described the advancement in records management in the 4IR based on the 4IR tools and technologies including artificial intelligence, blockchain, internet of things (IoT), robotics, and big data. The chapter also identified and discussed the benefits of technological advancement in the management of records; challenges of records management at the wake of 4IR and charted the way forward. In the context of document and records management, and taking into account all characteristics of the 4IR technologies and tools as well as its underlying technologies and concepts, the chapter concluded that the 4IR tools can be used to save time to create and process records, secure records from being damaged or destroyed, confirm the integrity of records, among others.


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