We are in the middle of burgeoning 4th industrial revolution (4IR) characterized by unprecedented scale, scope and complexity and its velocity and depth are still not fully understood. Emergence of new business models (BM) and demise of incumbents, as well as reconfiguration of production, demand, logistics and delivery implicates new paradigms over all industries. Particularly, recent turmoils in global economy due to Pandemic have resulted in vastly accelerated evolution and acceptance of 4IR.
IoT, cloud computing, big data analytics, A.I., 3D printing, autonomous electric vehicles and blockchain technologies are changing the business environments which results in many new opportunities and threats. In this environment, it is imperative to understand and respond to impacts of these changes on BM’s for corporate survival and sustainability.
In this class, we overview technology enablers and paradigm shifts of 4IR and characterize their impacts on corporate BM. State-of-the-art developments in innovation and entrepreneurship theories pertaining to the topic are curated and introduced, with a focal treatment of common themes such as customer focus, importance of platform and ecosystem strategy, value creation via evolutionary BM development towards Product-Service System (PSS) and role of organizational commitment and consensus. Such insights shall be useful both for entrepreneurs preparing for innovative new businesses and for incumbent enterprises leading evolutionary and revolutionary innovations.
