The Fifth Industrial Revolution: How Harmonious Human-Machine Collaboration is Triggering a Retail and Service [R]evolution

This manuscript draws attention to the dawn of the Fifth Industrial Revolution (5IR) and highlights its potential for addressing a host of issues within retail and service domains. With a retailing and service perspective, the authors outline the meaning of the 5IR, according to a 2 x 2 framework that categorizes retailers and service providers by their embrace of human-machine collaborations. They also propose an expanded definition of stakeholders in the 5IR (companies, employees, customers, and society). Merging digital, physical, and biological technologies promises enhanced well-being for societal actors across the board. By outlining these likely implications of the 5IR for retailing and services, this article establishes a roadmap for how the (r)evolution is likely to progress and offers a set of key research questions that emerge as a result. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of New York University.

Automated summary

This manuscript discusses the potential of the Fifth Industrial Revolution (5IR) in the retail and service domains, outlining its meaning, expanding the definition of stakeholders, and proposing research questions.