Actions and approaches for enabling Industry 5.0-driven sustainable industrial transformation: A strategy roadmap

Although Industry 4.0 was believed to promote sustainable development, it has ignored or misunderstood many prevailing sustainability concerns, which led to the emergence of the Industry 5.0 agenda. While the desirable sustainability values of Industry 5.0 are widely acknowledged, the knowledge of how this agenda can deliver sustainable transformation is lacking. The present study addresses this knowledge gap, explaining how Industry 5.0 transformation should be managed to facilitate sustainable development. Therefore, this study strives to model the underlying mechanism for enabling such transformation. The study conducted a content-centric review of the literature and identified 11 actions and approaches that serve as enablers of Industry 5.0 transformation. The study further conducted the interpretive structural modeling and structured the enablers as an interpretive model explaining steps needed for enabling Industry 5.0. Finally, the study developed the strategy roadmap for enabling Industry 5.0 transformation and sustainable development. Results emphasized stakeholder salience, highlighting the enabling role of stakeholder integration and collaboration in Industry 5.0 transformation. Proactive governmental support is the most driving enabler of Industry 5.0, whereas eco-innovation and sustainable value network reformation are among the most complex and hard-to-develop enablers. Results offer several implications for policymakers and practitioners, explaining the functionality of each approach and strategy necessary for Industry 5.0 transformation. The roadmap determines the sequential relationships among these approaches and strategies and identifies their optimal development sequence for enabling Industry 5.0 transformation synergistically. Results further identify the codependences among the Industry 5.0 transition enablers and highlight their interactions and complementarities.

Automated summary

This study addresses the knowledge gap in understanding how Industry 5.0 can deliver sustainable transformation. It identifies 11 actions and approaches that enable Industry 5.0 transformation and develops a strategy roadmap for sustainable development. The results highlight the significance of stakeholder integration and collaboration, as well as proactive governmental support, in driving Industry 5.0. Additionally, eco-innovation and sustainable value network reformation are identified as complex and challenging enablers. The study provides implications for policymakers and practitioners in terms of functionality and optimal development sequence.