SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIAL VALUE CREATION: BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF INDUSTRY 4.0

TLDR

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) impacts manufacturers across economic, ecological, and social dimensions of the Triple Bottom Line, yet its economic implications remain underexplored compared to its technical fundamentals. The study seeks to provide a comprehensive, structured analysis of IIoT’s economic, ecological, and social benefits and challenges within the Triple Bottom Line framework. The authors conducted an exploratory multiple case study using semi‑structured expert interviews with 46 manufacturing firms across three leading German industries. The study finds that sustainable industrial value creation through IIoT necessitates extending the Triple Bottom Line with technical integration, data and information, and public context dimensions.

Abstract

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) poses several implications on manufacturers in terms of economic, ecological, and social aspects referring to the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) of sustainable value creation. Due to its technical core, the current research focused on its technical fundamentals, whereas the economic discussion is still in its infancy. This paper aims at painting a comprehensive and structured picture of IIoT-related economic, ecological, and social benefits and challenges. For this purpose, we employ an exploratory multiple case study approach based on semi-structured expert interviews in 46 manufacturing companies from three leading German industries. Our study contributes to the sparse body of scientific IIoT literature by analysing the IIoT’s implications according to the TBL. We show that, in order to qualify for sustainable industrial value creation, the IIoT requires an extension of the established TBL by three further dimensions, i.e., technical integration, data and information, and public context.