The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

The fourth industrial revolution, a term coined by Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, describes a world where individuals move between digital domains and offline reality with the use of connected technology to enable and manage their lives. (Miller 2015, 3) The first industrial revolution changed our lives and economy from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. Oil and electricity facilitated mass production in the second industrial revolution. In the third industrial revolution, information technology was used to automate production. Although each industrial revolution is often considered a separate event, together they can be better understood as a series of events building upon innovations of the previous revolution and leading to more advanced forms of production. This article discusses the major features of the four industrial revolutions, the opportunities of the fourth industrial revolution, and the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.

Co-Evolution of the University Technology Transfer: Towards a Sustainability-Oriented Industry: Evidence from Italy

“…Thus, the realisation of the sustainability objective can be achieved only by jointly taking into account all the three aforementioned dimensions. Industry 4.0 technologies can positively affect the economy, society, and the environment [7] in terms, for example, of firms' productivity and efficiency [4], quality of people's lives [12,13], and environmentally sustainable production and consumption systems [10]. In particular, de Sousa et al [10] highlight multiple critical factors (e.g., leadership style, organisational culture and practices, flexibility, employees' skills, decisional autonomy, responsibility, cultural and social characteristic of regional and national contexts) able to orient the system of production and consumption towards more environmental sustainability.…”

“…However, digital transformation can lose its potential to give rise to sustainability-oriented development if not governed and managed jointly considering the requests coming from the above-cited three dimensions according to a holistic view of sustainability. Particularly, various challenges are referred to income inequality, ethical dilemmas, cybersecurity, hacking, existing work activities replacement [4,13]. Regarding to this last point, some authors [13,14] highlight that simple tasks will be further replaced, others (e.g., planning, monitoring and decision-making tasks) are likely to automated, and new job profiles are expected to emerge together with new requirements for training and education.…”

“…Particularly, various challenges are referred to income inequality, ethical dilemmas, cybersecurity, hacking, existing work activities replacement [4,13]. Regarding to this last point, some authors [13,14] highlight that simple tasks will be further replaced, others (e.g., planning, monitoring and decision-making tasks) are likely to automated, and new job profiles are expected to emerge together with new requirements for training and education. However, only few authors have jointly addressed economic, social, and environmental implications of industrial value creation in the context of Industry 4.0 (e.g., [7]).…”

“…Thus, digital transformation becomes itself a source of relationships and spatial interdependencies (local, national, and multi-national) able to promote sustainability and consequently competitiveness, assigning value to reciprocal relationship between policy makers and decision makers [13]. Therefore, all the actors involved in innovation processes are called to adopt a systemic approach according to a multi-stakeholder and a multi-level (i.e., micro, meso, macro) perspective [15][16][17][18].…”

Learning Make A Match Using Prezi in Elementary School in Industry 4.0

“…Industry 4.0 is an era of using technology in social life process [1] [2]. Individual must not only recognize technology in life but also must understand technology as a tool to help daily life process.…”