Organisational learning and industry 4.0: Findings from a systematic literature review and research agenda

Industry 4.0 has been one of the most topic of interest by researches and practitioners in recent years. Then, researches which bring new insights related to the subjects linked to the Industry 4.0 become relevant to support Industry 4.0’s initiatives as well as for the deployment of new research works. Considering “Organisational Learning” as one of the most crucial subjects in this new context, this article aims to identify dimensions present in the literature regarding the relation between Organisational Learning and Industry 4.0 seeking to clarify how learning can be understood into the context of the fourth industrial revolution. In addition, future research directions are presented as well. This study is based on a systematic literature review (SLR) that covers Industry 4.0 and Organisational Learning based on publications made from 2012, when the topic of Industry 4.0 was coined in Germany, using as data basis Web of Science and Google Scholar. Also, Nvivo software was used in order to identify keywords and the respective dimensions and constructs found out on this research. Nine dimensions were identified between Organisational Learning and Industry 4.0. These include Management, Industry 4.0, General Industry, Technology, Sustainability, Application, Interaction between Industry and the Academia, Education and Training, and Competency and Skills. These dimensions may be viewed in three main constructs which are essentially in order to understand and manage Learning in Industry 4.0’s programs. They are: Learning Development, Industry 4.0 Structure and Technology Adoption. Even though there are relatively few publications that have studied the relationship between Organisational Learning and Industry 4.0, this article makes a material contribution to both the theory in relation to Industry 4.0 and the theory of learning - for its unprecedented nature, introducing the dimensions comprising this relation as well as possible future research directions encouraging empirical researches. This article identifies the thematic dimensions relative to Industry 4.0 and Organisational Learning. The understanding of this relation has a relevant contribution to professionals acting in the field of Organisational Learning and Industry 4.0 in the sense of affording an adequate deployment of these elements by organisations. This article is unique for filling a gap in the academic literature in terms of understanding the relation between Organisational Learning and Industry 4.0. The article also provides future research directions on learning within the context of Industry 4.0.

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