Design management as a domain of smart and sustainable enterprise: business modelling for innovation and smart growth in Industry 4.0

Abstract

The prior research has scrutinised the extent and scope of design integration for smart production and services innovation and value generation for smart society including enterprises, customers and end-users in the context of Industry 4.0. A conceptual approach has been proposed for practical business applications in developing and exploiting new innovative products or services. The present paper underpins the earlier research in methodological terms and is an affiliated research endeavour. The research traces successful performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the context of Industry 4.0 in correlation with design as a source, resource and strategic tool for value generation and its capitalisation on the market. Building upon the integrated design as a tool and process for innovation capacity in the current industrial development paradigm, the present paper contributes to the previously anticipated research objective to reveal how design integration and design management manifest within small business practices and to what extent creates value. The key research focus is placed here on the strategic business orientationbusiness modelling and value creation for SMEs driven by impact factors from design, innovation management and strategic management field in the context of entrepreneurship. The present research is a result of qualitative research activity based on the case study methodological approach. Empirical data suggest how small enterprises within the Industry 4.0 domain can accelerate their growth targets and become more innovative, innovation being the move towards sustainable competitiveness and smart growth.

Organizational Culture as an Indication of Readiness to Implement Industry 4.0

“…It turns out that strategic corporate governance is a very important determinant for organizational culture. For example, one study suggests how small enterprises within the Industry 4.0 domain can speed up their growth targets and grow to be more innovative, innovation being the move towards sustainable competitiveness and smart growth [23].…”

Research streams on digital transformation from a holistic business perspective: a systematic literature review and citation network analysis

“…Other articles deal more strictly with the implications of IIoT for business models (Arnold et al 2016) and how the new business models of the digital era can be identified and developed (Pisano et al 2015;Najmaei 2016). Of particular interest is the emergence of these new business models in the context of the DT through entrepreneurship (Guo et al 2017), as well as their more sustainable nature (Gerlitz 2016;Prause and Atari 2017).…”

A Comprehensive Framework for the Analysis of Industry 4.0 Value Domains

“…They answer questions like, who are customers, what to offer them, and how to operate to create value in profitable/sustainable way [1]. Authors of References [63][64][65][66][67] propose three interconnected value domains of a business model: Value proposition (reason why customers turn to one company over another), Value creation (resources, capabilities, and processes required to deliver the value proposition), and Value capturing (cost structure and revenue formula, which defines the profitability and economical sustainability of the business enterprise). As there is as an enormous value to management to have a software-based version of a business model, References [47,68,69] introduced its Business Model Canvas (BMC), composed of nine elements divided into four categories: Product (what?…”