Winning Business Models for the 4th Industrial Revolution

The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of the Industry 4.0 on business models considering technological change as a driver of strategic innovation. The research aims to provide the key to interpreting a process of innovation that, starting from the technological transformation, translates it into a broader change of business models. A structured literature review has been developed analyzing 144 sources divided into scientific papers, reports from consultancy firms and institutional reports, to identify the importance given by the literature to the technologies and their impact on the single building blocks of the business model. The research has led to the identification of four types of business models, which represent a framework to understand the crucial issues to be applied to interpret the phenomenon strategically. The technologies of the Industry 4.0 allow the development of new business models. In this way, it is possible to start a strategic innovation and create new markets through a unique value proposition. The analysis led to understand the potential of Industry 4.0 as the strategic innovation of business models and its impact on knowledge management processes.