4th Industrial Revolution & New Business Model

We are in the middle of burgeoning 4th industrial revolution (4IR) characterized by unprecedented scale, scope and complexity and its velocity and depth are still not fully understood. Emergence of new business models (BM) and demise of incumbents, as well as reconfiguration of production, demand, logistics and delivery implicates new paradigms over all industries. Particularly, recent turmoils in global economy due to Pandemic have resulted in vastly accelerated evolution and acceptance of 4IR.

IoT, cloud computing, big data analytics, A.I., 3D printing, autonomous electric vehicles and blockchain technologies are changing the business environments which results in many new opportunities and threats. In this environment, it is imperative to understand and respond to impacts of these changes on BM’s for corporate survival and sustainability.

In this class, we overview technology enablers and paradigm shifts of 4IR and characterize their impacts on corporate BM. State-of-the-art developments in innovation and entrepreneurship theories pertaining to the topic are curated and introduced, with a focal treatment of common themes such as customer focus, importance of platform and ecosystem strategy, value creation via evolutionary BM development towards Product-Service System (PSS) and role of organizational commitment and consensus. Such insights shall be useful both for entrepreneurs preparing for innovative new businesses and for incumbent enterprises leading evolutionary and revolutionary innovations.

Lecture 1. Introduction

- Background and concept of 4th industrial revolution

- Enablers of 4th industrial revolution

- COVID-19 and 4th industrial revolution

- Concept and role of business model in innovation

- Introduction to business model canvas and its components

- Business models enabled by 4th industrial revolution

Lecture 2. Platform Ecosystem Strategy

- Platform ecosystem strategy and network effects

- Two-sided market

- Value appropriation

Lecture 3. Customer Focus, Cloud Computing & Product-Service System

- Customer focus and decoupling

- Concept of servitization and product-service system

- Impact of product-service system on business model

- 4th industrial revolution and servitization

- Cloud manufacturing as a product-service system

- Value proposition canvas

Lecture 4. Additive Manufacturing & Entrepreneurship

- 3D printing for a disruptive business model in manufacturing

- Lean start-up

- Importance of customer discovery and customer validation

Lecture 5. Big Data Analytics

- Big data analytics use cases in functional areas of business

- Importance of big data analytics capabilities and challenges

Lecture 6. Autonomous Electric Vehicles

- Lessons from Tesla

- Value proposition reconfiguration tactics for disruptive technology

- Autonomous vehicle solutions for digital servitization

- Battery second use and sustainable business model

Lecture 7. Blockchain 1

- Origin and concept of blockchain

- Role of blockchain from business perspective

- Impact of blockchain on business model

Lecture 8. Blockchain 2

- Virtual asset (crypto asset)

- Web3 and metaverse