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Behind the definition of Industry 4.0: Analysis and open questions

Open access
Culot, Giovanna, Nassimbeni, Guido, Orzes, Guido, Sartor, Marco·2020·International Journal of Production Economics

Abstract

Abstract The many scholars approaching Industry 4.0 today need to confront the lack of an agreed-upon definition, posing serious limitations to theory building and research comparability. Since its initial German conceptualization in 2011, both the technological landscape and the understanding of the Industry 4.0 have evolved significantly leading to several ambiguities. In parallel, similar concepts often used as synonyms − such as “smart manufacturing”, “digital transformation”, and “fourth industrial revolution” − have increased the sense of confusion around the scope and characteristics of the phenomenon. This study approaches the issue through an analysis of almost 100 definitions of Industry 4.0 and related concepts. The review of academic publications has been complemented by a selection of the most influential non-academic sources, including governmental bodies and consulting companies. Each definition has been broken down into its underlying technological and non-technological definitional elements. This categorization will serve as a basis for future research to approach the phenomenon in its multiple facets.

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Metadata

Authors
Culot, G., Nassimbeni, G., Orzes, G., & Sartor, M.
Venue
International Journal of Production Economics
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-08
Volume
226
Pages
107617
ISSN
0925-5273 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2999968165
Cited by
692
References
16
FWCI
65.05
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Behind the definition of Industry 4.0: Analysis and open questions. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1016/j.ijpe.2020.107617
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Culot, G., Nassimbeni, G., Orzes, G., & Sartor, M. (2020). Behind the definition of Industry 4.0: Analysis and open questions. International Journal of Production Economics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2020.107617

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.