Framing Industry 4.0 as a Social Innovation

This article illustrates a social innovation perspective of Industry 4.0 by examining the literature around these concepts. Industry 4.0 refers to advanced technology adopted to automate and digitalise operations, and they are at the base of the fourth industrial revolution. So far, some studies show that Industry 4.0 adoption is oriented toward value maximisation for organisations. Against this backdrop, we show that Industry 4.0 technologies can be adopted to tackle social issues and improve the well-being of people in society. In particular, this study highlights three Industry 4.0 technology applications as social innovations: the socially sustainable factory, urban manufacturing and Fablabs.