Knowledge Management in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Mapping the Literature and Scoping Future Avenues

Abstract

Due to increased competitive pressure, modern organizations tend to rely on knowledge and its exploitation to sustain a long-term advantage. This calls for a precise understanding of knowledge management (KM) processes and, specifically, how knowledge is created, shared/transferred, acquired, stored/retrieved, and applied throughout an organizational system. However, since the beginning of the new millennium, such KM processes have been deeply affected and molded by the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, also called Industry 4.0, which involves the interconnectedness of machines and their ability to learn and share data autonomously. For this reason, the present study investigates the intellectual structure and trends of KM in Industry 4.0. Bibliometric analysis and a systematic literature review are conducted on a total of 90 relevant articles. The results reveal 6 clusters of keywords, subsequently explored via a systematic literature review to identify potential stream of this emergent field and future research avenues capable of producing meaningful advances in managerial knowledge of Industry 4.0 and its consequences.

The impact of open-border organization culture and employees’ knowledge, attitudes, and rewards with regards to open innovation: an empirical study

“…Responding to the EU's new societal and community needs, both academics and practitioners have recognized and acknowledged the growing trend of organizations opening up their innovation strategy to enable them to survive in today's dynamic world (Lichtenthaler and Lichtenthaler, 2009;Spithoven et al, 2013;Urbinati et al, 2020;Švarc and Dabić, 2019;Fakhar Manesh et al, 2020). The new paradigm has been broadly accepted and adopted by both large international organizations and SMEs (Mortara and Minshall, 2011;Van de Vrande et al, 2009, Expósito et al, 2019.…”

Quo Vadis Industry 4.0? Position, Trends, and Challenges

“…This is also attested in a recent analysis of Industry 4.0 related job profiles [32]. Enabling the workforce to acquire the required knowledge [33] and skills to respond to challenges and expectations of the industry when implementing the Industry 4.0, as well as migrating legacy industrial systems into Industry 4.0compliant systems are seen as vital. Such know-how requires multidisciplinary knowledge [33] and skills, which need to be acquired via the educational systems [34], as well as complementary training and lifelong learning for employees.…”

“…Enabling the workforce to acquire the required knowledge [33] and skills to respond to challenges and expectations of the industry when implementing the Industry 4.0, as well as migrating legacy industrial systems into Industry 4.0compliant systems are seen as vital. Such know-how requires multidisciplinary knowledge [33] and skills, which need to be acquired via the educational systems [34], as well as complementary training and lifelong learning for employees. Especially considering the effects of COVID-19 in business, the trend for online learning and training via Massive open online courses (MOOCs) [35] is reinforced, which fits well with other complementary activities such as VR for employee training [36].…”

Rethinking SME default prediction: a systematic literature review and future perspectives

“…In order to offer a non-biased and fine-grained analysis of the literature concerning the topic of SME default prediction, we opted for a hybrid approach combining a quantitative bibliometric analysis and a systematic literature review. This approach has already been adopted in other field of studies, such as sustainability (Mura et al 2018 ), innovation (Klarin 2019 ; Marzi et al 2021 ), knowledge management (Fakhar Manesh et al 2021 ; Pellegrini et al 2020 ), strategy (Ciampi et al 2020 ) and entrepreneurship (Delgado García et al 2015 ; Sassetti et al 2018 ), where it showed its effectiveness and reliability (Ding et al 2014 ).…”

“…Finally, in the last step, grounded on the output of the VOS analysis, a systematic literature review was carried out (Tranfield et al 2003 ): we systematically analysed all the papers inside each cluster highlighting the main topics, the main findings and proposed a series of research avenues that still need to be further explored by scholars and practitioners (Fakhar Manesh et al 2021 ; Klarin 2019 ; Marzi et al 2021 ; Mura et al 2018 ). The list of the 106 papers included in the present study is provided in the appendix of the paper.…”