Abstract
Organisations are having difficulty in determining and integrating Industry 4.0 technologies (I4.0T) to improve social dimensions of sustainable performance. We address this issue by showing how to identify the impact degree and path of I4.0T using the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs). First, we identify the SDGs associated with I4.0 and establish an evaluation framework. Second, we introduce an evaluation method that integrates hesitant fuzzy sets, rough sets, decision-making, trial evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and interpretative structural modelling methods to identify the impact degree and path of I4.0T on SDGs. Third, we confirm the effectiveness of our framework and method using secondary case data from World Economic Forum reports. The case results show that I4.0T have varying direct and indirect influences on SDGs. Policy makers should consider that ‘Big Data and Analytics’ and ‘Cloud Computing’ are central I4.0T that link other technologies and SDGs. The prioritisation of I4.0T can lead to contributions to addressing ‘Responsible consumption and production’ and indirectly improve SDGs. The findings set an initial stage to help sequence investment in various technologies depending on SDGs. We identify sequential paths that can aid in planning for and investing in adopting I4.0T to better achieve SDGs.
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Chunguang Bai
Chunguang Bai is currently a Professor in the School of Management and Economics, at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. She earned her Ph. D. in Management Science from the Dalian University of Technology. Her research interests include sustainable supply chain management, smart technology and the carbon neutralisation. She has dozens of publications with over 50 papers in journals such as Production and Operations Management, Decision Science, OMEGA, the European Journal of Operational Research. She has over 4000 citations based on Google Scholar. She has been recognised as one of the most cited researchers in China across disciplines And World's Top 2% Scientists 2020 (by Stanford University). She served as a visiting scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Temple University in the U. S., and at Concordia University in Canada. Her research has been funded by a number of National Science Foundation of China grants.
Hua Zhou
Hua Zhou is currently a postgraduate student in the School of Management and Economics, at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. His research interests include sustainability management and the smart technology.
Joseph Sarkis
Joseph Sarkis is a Professor in the Business School at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His research and teaching are in the areas of operations, supply chain, technology and sustainability management. He has been a highly cited scholar for many years with over 500 publications. He is also an international scholar at the Hanken School of Economics. He does his best to live sustainably.