Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Examining the development of a digital ecosystem in an Industry 4.0 context: a sociotechnical perspective

  • Original Article
  • Published:
SN Business & Economics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To respond to increased competition, manufacturing organisations have started developing digital ecosystems within a supply chain by adopting Industry 4.0 technologies. That approach promises to improve organisational efficiency by automating operations and decision-making activities. The development of the digital ecosystem passes through vertical and horizontal integrations of technologies. Vertical integration represents the integration of various organisational units, and it is a milestone in the process of reaching horizontal integration where different organisations integrate their production processes in a supply chain. The extant literature reveals that the vertical integration of an organisation is challenging to achieve, as the adoption process of Industry 4.0 employs a technocentric perspective without considering the way that technology users can cause strong workforce resistance against Industry 4.0 adoption. The sociotechnical perspective addresses this issue by considering both technology and users during the adoption process. Therefore, this paper illustrates the applicability of the sociotechnical approach to an in-depth single case study of an Italian manufacturing group which successfully adopted Industry 4.0 technologies. We show the adoption process of Industry 4.0 technologies, highlighting the outcome of the adoption and proposing sociotechnical enabling factors that assist in achieving vertical integration.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on request.

Notes

  1. AIDA is an online database, owned by Bureau van Dijk, containing financial information of more than 500,000 Italian companies. AIDA has official balance reports of Italian companies of the last 10 years.

References

  • Alter S (2013) Work system theory: overview of core concepts, extensions, and challenges for the future. J Assoc Inf Syst 14(2):72–121

    Google Scholar 

  • Alter S (2014) Theory of workarounds. Commun Assoc Inf Syst. https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.03455

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blunck E, Werthmann H (2017) Industry 4.0—an opportunity to realize sustainable manufacturing and its potential for a circular economy. DIEM Dubrov Int Econ Meet 3(1):644–666

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonekamp L, Sure M (2015) Consequences of Industry 4.0 on human labour and work organisation. J Bus Media Psychol 6(1):33–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Bostrom RP, Heinen SJ (1977) MIS problems and failures: a socio-technical perspective. Part I: the causes. MIS Quart 1(3):17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braccini AM, Margherita E (2019) Exploring organizational sustainability of Industry 4.0 under the triple bottom line: the case of a manufacturing company. Sustainability 11(1):36. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11010036

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corbin JM, Strauss AL (2015) Basics of qualitative research. Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. SAGE Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks, California

  • Dantas de Sena Junior LC, Alves da Silva RE, Mendonça Torres L, Gomes de Sousa Y, de Medeiros SM, Bittencourt Leite de Carvalho J (2016) Knowledge workers on occupational hazards in the industry of ceramics. Int Arch Med. https://doi.org/10.3823/2008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Sousa Jabbour ABL, Jabbour CJC, Foropon C, Filho MG (2018) When titans meet—can industry 4.0 revolutionise the environmentally-sustainable manufacturing wave? The role of critical success factors. Technol Forecast Soc Change 132:18–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.01.017

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Denzin N (2006) Sociological methods: a sourcebook (A. Transaction, ed), 5th edn. Aldine Transaction

    Google Scholar 

  • DeSanctis G, Poole MS (1994) Capturing the complexity in advanced technology use: adaptive structuration theory. Organ Sci 5(2):121–147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans PC, Annunziata M (2012) Industrial internet: pushing the boundaries of minds and machines. General Electric Reports

  • Goodhue DL, Thompson RL (1995) Task-technology fit and individual performance. MIS Q 19(2):213–236

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kagermann H, Wolfgang W, Helbig J (2013) Recommendations for implementing the strategic initiative INDUSTRIE 4.0. Working Group. Acatech, Frankfurt Am Main, p 82. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.1205.8966

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kamble SS, Gunasekaran A, Sharma R (2018) Analysis of the driving and dependence power of barriers to adopt industry 4.0 in Indian manufacturing industry. Comput Ind 101:107–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2018.06.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kang HS, Lee JY, Choi S, Kim H, Park JH, Son JY, Noh SD et al (2016) Smart manufacturing: past research, present findings, and future directions. Int J Precis Eng Manuf Green Technol 3(1):111–128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40684-016-0015-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar N, Stern LW, Anderson JC, Stern LW, Anderson JC (1993) Conducting interorganizational research using key informants. Acad Manag J 36(6):1633–1651

    Google Scholar 

  • Land F (2000) Evaluation in a socio-technical context. In: Basskerville R, Stage J, DeGross JI (eds) Organizational and social perspectives on information technology. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Langley A (1999) Strategies for theorizing from process data. Acad Manag 24(4):691

    Google Scholar 

  • Leavitt HJ (1964) Applied organization change in industry: Structural, technical and human approaches. New perspectives in organisational research. Wiley

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee J, Bagheri B, Kao HA (2015) A cyber-physical systems architecture for Industry 4.0-based manufacturing systems. Manuf Lett 3:18–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonardi PM (2012) Materiality, sociomateriality, and socio-technical systems: what do these terms mean? How are they different? Do we need them? In: Leonardi PM, Nardi BA (eds) Materiality and organizing: social interaction in a technological world. Oxford Press, Oxford

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Liao Y, Deschamps F, Loures EDFR, Ramos LFP (2017) Past, present and future of Industry 4.0—a systematic literature review and research agenda proposal. Int J Prod Res 55(12):3609–3629

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Locke KD (2001) Grounded theory in management research. SAGE Publications, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyytinen K, Newman M (2008) Explaining information systems change: a punctuated socio-technical change model. Eur J Inf Syst 17(6):589–613

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Margherita EG, Braccini AM (2020a) Exploring the socio-technical interplay of Industry 4.0: a single case study of an Italian manufacturing organisation. In: Proceedings of the 6th international workshop on socio-technical perspective in IS development (STPIS 2020), June 8–9, 2020. CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)

  • Margherita EG, Braccini AM (2020b) Industry 4.0 technologies in flexible manufacturing for sustainable organizational value: reflections from a multiple case study of Italian manufacturers. Inf Syst Front. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-020-10047-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Margherita EG, Braccini AM (2020c) Organizational impacts on sustainability of Industry 4.0: a systematic literature review from empirical case studies. In: Agrifoglio R, Lamboglia R, Mancini D, Ricciardi F (eds) Digital business transformation organizing, managing and controlling in the information age. Springer, pp 173–186. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47355-6_12

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Margherita EG, Braccini AM (2021) Managing the fourth industrial revolution: a competence framework for smart factory. In: Hamdan A, Hassanien AE, Razzaque A, Alareeni B (eds) The fourth industrial revolution: implementation of artificial intelligence for growing business success. Studies in computational intelligence. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62796-6_23

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Margherita EG, Bua I (2021) The role of human resource practices for the development of Operator 4.0 in Industry 4.0 organisations: a literature review and a research agenda. Businesses 1(1):18–33. https://doi.org/10.3390/businesses1010002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Müller JM (2019) Assessing the barriers to Industry 4.0 implementation from a workers’ perspective. IFAC-PapersOnLine 52(13):2189–2194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2019.11.530

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Müller JM, Buliga O, Voigt KI (2018) Fortune favors the prepared: How SMEs approach business model innovations in Industry 4.0. Technol Forecast Soc Change 132:2–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mumford E (2003) Redesigning Human Systems. IGI Global

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Prause G, Atari S, Prause G, Atari S (2017) On sustainable production networks for Industry 4.0. Entrep Sustain Issues Entrep Sustain Center 4(4):421–431

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruggieri A, Braccini AM, Poponi S, Mosconi EM (2016) A meta-model of inter-organisational cooperation for the transition to a circular economy. Sustainability 8(11):1153. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8111153

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarker S, Chetterjee S, Xiao X (2013) How “Sociotechnical” is our is research? An assessment and possible ways forward. In: Baskerville R, Chau M (eds) Proceedings of the 34th international conference on information systems. ICIS 2013, pp 1–24

  • Sarker S, Chatterjee S, Xiao X, Elbanna A (2019) The sociotechnical axis of cohesion for IS discipline: its historical legacy and its continued relevance. MIS Q 43(3):695–719

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sawyer S, Jarrahi MH (2014) Sociotechnical approaches to the study of information systems. In: Tucker A, Topi H (eds) Computing handbook: information systems and information technology, 3rd edn. Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton

    Google Scholar 

  • Sayar D, Er Ö (2018) The antecedents of successful IoT service and system design: cases from the manufacturing industry. Int J Des 12(1):67–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Sony M, Naik S (2019a) Critical factors for the successful implementation of Industry 4.0: a review and future research direction. Prod Plan Control. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1691278

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sony M, Naik S (2019b) Key ingredients for evaluating Industry 4.0 readiness for organizations: a literature review. Benchmarking. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-09-2018-0284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sony M, Naik S (2020) Industry 4.0 integration with socio-technical systems theory: a systematic review and proposed theoretical model. Technol Soc 61:101248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101248

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stock T, Seliger G (2016) Opportunities of sustainable manufacturing in Industry 4.0. Procedia CIRP 40:536–541. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2016.01.129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trist E (1981) The sociotechnical perspective: the evolution of sociotechnical systems as a conceptual framework and as an action research program. Perspectives on organizational design and behavior. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Von Bertalanffy L (1972) The history and status of general systems theory. Acad Manag J 15(4):407–426

    Google Scholar 

  • Walsham G (2006) Doing interpretive research. Eur J Inf Syst 15(3):320–330. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000589

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yin RK (2002) Case study research: design and methods, vol 5. SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics Engineering Society and Organization-DEIM, University of Tuscia, Via del Paradiso, 47, 01100, Viterbo, Italy

    Emanuele Gabriel Margherita & Alessio Maria Braccini

Authors
  1. Emanuele Gabriel Margherita
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alessio Maria Braccini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emanuele Gabriel Margherita.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Margherita, E.G., Braccini, A.M. Examining the development of a digital ecosystem in an Industry 4.0 context: a sociotechnical perspective. SN Bus Econ 1, 89 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43546-021-00096-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43546-021-00096-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation