Industry 4.0 Technologies for Environmental Sustainability: Intended and Unintended Consequences

Industry 4.0 technologies are expected to have a positive impact on the global economy by promoting autonomous interoperability, agility, flexibility, decision-making, efficiency or cost reduction, which are also expected to be resource efficient. However, new and emerging technologies can also have potentially harmful social and environmental impacts that must be considered.

The goal of this book is to provide a deeper understanding of how Industry 4.0 technologies can benefit or harm the environmental sustainability of companies. To this end, it presents a classification of Industry 4.0 technologies and evaluates for each typology the positive and negative aspects of their implementation. Thus, the book considers Industry 4.0 technology and environmental sustainability from the perspective of management on the one hand and from the perspective of technology users on the other.

The book is of interest to researchers from various disciplines who approach Industry 4.0 technologies from a business perspective, and on the other hand to managers and strategic consultants who want to promote sustainable change in their companies.

Adele Parmentola is Full Professor at the Department of Management and Quantitative Studies of Parthenope University of Naples (Italy), where she teaches business management, marketing, innovation management and international innovation network. She is the author of more than 80 publications on the topics of innovation management, Industry 4.0 and environmental sustainability, university entrepreneurship and local innovation systems. Her studies are published in journals like Technovation, Small Business Economics, R&D Management, Business Strategy and the Environment and Journal of Technology Transfer.

Ilaria Tutore is an Associate Professor of Management at the Department of Management and Quantitative Studies of Parthenope University of Naples (Italy). She has been Visiting PhD student at Aarhus School of Business (Denmark), studying at ’CORE’ research center for the environmental strategy of Danish power companies. Her research interests cover the field of organizations and the natural environment, diffusion of innovation, and green innovation. Her studies are published in journals like Business Strategy and the Environment, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management and Management Decision.