Purpose -The purpose of this study is to explore the required changes, outline business potential and envisage the key steps that a networked manufacturing industry needs to take to reach more sustainably performing manufacturing in the future. Design/methodology/approach -The paper utilises a visionary road-mapping approach to study the required changes and the business potential related to sustainable development in the manufacturing industry.
Findings -The results were summarised in three sub-roadmaps empowerment of stakeholders, increase efficiency and creation of new performance criteria. On the basis of the summary of the sub-roadmaps, the framework was configured to describe the opportunities and challenges of sustainable business development in the European manufacturing industry.Research limitations/implications -A clear implication of this study is that a more system-oriented approach, new models for collaboration between network actors and transparently shared network-level KPIs are required before further steps towards a sustainable manufacturing industry can be taken. In addition, sustainability-driven business models are required to specify these changes concretely. Practical implications -The presented sub-roadmaps and framework summarising them could provide new insights to business practitioners exploring business potential of sustainability. Social implications -Understanding about the road-mapping process as tool that enables interaction and envisioning between different stakeholders could also have social implications supporting shared industry-level learning processes. Originality/value -Studies of sustainability within the manufacturing industry have focused mainly on green issues in supply-chain management or corporation-level governance models and reporting practices. The paper presents a broader view of sustainable development and recognises networked business as part of the solution.
The present study investigates activities and actors' roles in how companies utilise and adopt big data and cognitive systems in their business processes. Based on the literature review, a qualitative analysis of 18 in-depth interviews with participants from six companies and a complementary review of five illustrative case companies, we identify five different roles to create business value or new business opportunities in the collaborative networks. Based on those business roles, we also identified activities and outcomes. This study contributes to the debate regarding business roles and activities and how companies create value in adopting data and cognitive systems in collaborative networks. For practitioners, the findings show that different data-driven business roles and opportunities exist in the collaborative networks. The business roles are not exclusive, and the same company can have several roles depending on the business case.
Digitalisation and data are stated to be significant drivers of change, technology disruption, and new business. The purpose of this study is to explore the business impacts of technology disruption, more specifically the adoption of cognitive systems within collaborative networks through a design science approach. In accordance with design studies, the relevance of the research results and the research quality are evaluated against the practices of seven companies that participated in the research process. At the crossroads of technology and business disruption the two main dimensions illustrate: 1) the technical complexity of cognitive systems adapted from conventional data utilisation to learning cognitive systems and 2) the broadness of business impacts from a company's internal processes to changes in ecosystems.
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