Like “INDUSTRY 4.0,” one of the big catchwords of our time is “ECONOMY 4.0”. The two terms come from a different angle, but they both refer to the fourth stage of the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, relating to DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION and NETWORKING within companies, beyond the borders of individual firms, at each stage of the VALUE CHAIN and in all sectors of industry. The result: a disintegration of boundaries as previously separate areas now converge. But this trend is now going further and developing into an INDUSTRY X.0, a phenomenon that not only involves TECHNOLOGICAL and ECONOMIC, but also SOCIETAL, ORGANIZATIONAL, and ECOLOGICAL FACTORS. What underlies this model concept, and what companies can do to succeed in this situation, are just some of the topics looked at by the STEINBEIS EXPERTS in our Feature Topic section.
All Feature Topic articles of this issue can be found here.