Industry 4.0, Sustainability, and Internationalization: A Systematic Literature Review

In today's rapidly changing business environment, the connection between Industry 4.0, sustainability, and internationalization holds high importance for scholars and practitioners alike. The integration of these three topics has gained significant attention in scholarly discourse in several research fields, from international business (IB) to operations, from sustainability to innovation, marketing, and entrepreneurial studies. This ongoing systematic literature review aims to uncover the relationship between Industry 4.0, sustainability, and internationalization at a firm level. The review employs the PRISMA approach and critically analyzes 55 high-quality journal articles. The research encompasses a descriptive and in-depth thematic analysis to extract insights and provide a thorough understanding of the state of the art. The work delves into the evolving perspectives, conceptual foundations, and empirical studies with the final objective of developing a synthetic framework to help identify the main topics of analysis and propose further research avenues, therefore providing actionable insights and contributing to the evolving discourse on integrating Industry 4.0 with sustainability in an international context.