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The Emperor’s New Clothes or an Enduring IT Fashion? Analyzing the Lifecycle of Industry 4.0 through the Lens of Management Fashion Theory

Author

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  • Thuy Duong Oesterreich

    (Department of Accounting and Information Systems, Osnabrück University, 49074 Osnabrück, Germany)

  • Julian Schuir

    (Department of Accounting and Information Systems, Osnabrück University, 49074 Osnabrück, Germany)

  • Frank Teuteberg

    (Department of Accounting and Information Systems, Osnabrück University, 49074 Osnabrück, Germany)

Abstract

This paper examines the recent hype around Industry 4.0 through the lens of management fashion theory to answer the question of how Industry 4.0 has emerged as a management fashion and to what extent it has diffused in organizational practice. Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive discourse lifecycle analysis based on 3920 academic and practical publications comprising a rhetoric and content analysis along with a diffusion lifecycle analysis involving selected diffusion indicators. The findings indicate that Industry 4.0 constitutes an enduring management fashion that has recently reached its peak, with the first signs for an upcoming downswing. The discourse around Industry 4.0 illustrates the concept as a panacea for business problems such as a lack of sustainability and intense global competition; however, the diffusion lifecycle analysis indicates hesitation among companies to adopt Industry 4.0 due to the ambiguity in the conceptual interpretation. The findings enable a more holistic understanding of the recent developments around Industry 4.0 and help to identify actions for the involved political, practical and academic actors. To actively shape the Industry 4.0 fashion development path, more institutional work is needed to help Industry 4.0 fashion users with their adoption engagements and hence achieve “professionalization” at an organizational level.

Suggested Citation

  • Thuy Duong Oesterreich & Julian Schuir & Frank Teuteberg, 2020. "The Emperor’s New Clothes or an Enduring IT Fashion? Analyzing the Lifecycle of Industry 4.0 through the Lens of Management Fashion Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-29, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:21:p:8828-:d:433912
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. Dag Øivind Madsen & Kåre Slåtten, 2022. "The Possibilities and Limitations of Using Google Books Ngram Viewer in Research on Management Fashions," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-12, November.
    4. Dinara Dikhanbayeva & Akmaral Tokbergenova & Yevgeniy Lukhmanov & Essam Shehab & Zbigniew Pastuszak & Ali Turkyilmaz, 2021. "Critical Factors of Industry 4.0 Implementation in an Emerging Country: Empirical Study," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-25, May.
    5. Tingey-Holyoak, Joanne & Pisaniello, John & Buss, Peter & Mayer, Wolfgang, 2021. "The importance of accounting-integrated information systems for realising productivity and sustainability in the agricultural sector," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    6. Sonntag, Martin & Mehmann, Jens & Teuteberg, Frank, 2021. "Application of Industry 4.0 in the automotive sector," Chapters from the Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics (HICL), in: Kersten, Wolfgang & Ringle, Christian M. & Blecker, Thorsten (ed.), Adapting to the Future: How Digitalization Shapes Sustainable Logistics and Resilient Supply Chain Management. Proceedings of the Hamburg Internationa, volume 31, pages 151-182, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute of Business Logistics and General Management.
    7. Ibrahim Yitmen & Amjad Almusaed & Sepehr Alizadehsalehi, 2023. "Investigating the Causal Relationships among Enablers of the Construction 5.0 Paradigm: Integration of Operator 5.0 and Society 5.0 with Human-Centricity, Sustainability, and Resilience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-25, June.
    8. Julian Schuir & Frank Teuteberg, 2021. "Understanding augmented reality adoption trade-offs in production environments from the perspective of future employees: A choice-based conjoint study," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 1039-1085, September.

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