Reinterpreting innovation through the lens of the Industry 5.0 paradigm

Opening date: 3rd of April, 2023

Introduction: 

At the heart of the Industry 5.0. paradigm, an initiative launched by the European Commission (2021; 2022), lies the recognition that (digital) innovation and its application in the form of services, products, and processes need to serve the triple imperative of being sustainable, human-centric and geared toward resilience of industry, the economy and society. Notably, as research and practice suggest, digital transformation has prompted a dramatic change and evolution of markets, business models and entrepreneurial strategies (Nambisan et al., 2019; Troise et al., 2022) by introducing new opportunities and challenges for private, public and non-profit organizations. 

In this context, the objective of this special issue is threefold: 

1. As the transition to the broadly defined Industry 5.0. paradigm is accompanied by ground-breaking developments and ideational shifts in several branches/subsectors of industry, including the medicine and healthcare cluster, it is imperative to identify, explore, understand and explain the mechanisms that drive this transition.  
2. Against this backdrop, it will be possible to identify not only untapped possibilities, but also the bottle-necks and obstacles to the development of innovation and to the transformation of disruption into an opportunity for change.
3. In addition, an informed by theory insight into case-studies and best practices will enable, on the one hand, to sketch the yet-to-be explored research avenues, and on the other hand, to draw a list of managerial implications and policy- and strategy recommendations.

The originality: 

While the concept and, indeed, the paradigm of Industry 5.0. gains on momentum, countervailing developments, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the resulting economic downturn, as well as the war in Ukraine, have obscured the centrality and topicality of the concept and the paradigm. As a result, the academic literature on diverse aspects of Industry 5.0 is still nascent and fragmented, while the general public, including practitioners and managers, are largely oblivious of the concept. This Special Issue, by definition open to inter- and multidisciplinary approaches, seeks to revert the situation by placing Industry 5.0 in the centre of the debates. The originality of the approach that this special issue adopts derives from the explicit attempt to address the following threefold challenge: (i) to make advances in ICT useful and usable across levels and domains, especially in view of navigating shocks and crises of all kinds; by so doing (ii) to rethink the traditional innovation paradigm and highlight the value added of Industry 5.0. and Innovation 5.0; (iii) to suggest strategies and practices that can help exploit the potential of the Industry 5.0 for the economic growth and the well-being of society at large.  

The rationale: 

Under conditions of protracted uncertainty, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and its implications, by the war in Ukraine, by the – attributed to climate change – virulence of the natural phenomena, it is mandatory to identify and/or create anchors that the variety of stakeholders (society at large, the business sector, the local and regional authorities, national governments etc) can cling to and thus make the reality and the specific contexts in which they operated more predictable. The Industry 5.0 paradigm, with its focus on the human-being, sustainability and resilience offers an opportunity for this kind of anchors to be established (Fukuyama, 2018; Serpa and Ferreira, 2019). These would include processes, mechanisms, and tools, that while geared toward the attainment of these three goals, would also allow streamlining actions, strategies and policies undertaken at the level of public, private and voluntary organizations and businesses across levels and dimensions enabling more innovation (Hitachi-UTokyo Laboratory, 2018; Fukuyama, 2018; Carayannis et al., 2021).
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List of topic areas: 

• How can the key drivers and dimensions of Industry 5.0 and Innovation 5.0 paradigms be conceptualized and applied across sectors and industries (business, management, entrepreneurship, medicine & healthcare)? 
• How can businesses and organizations develop readiness to change and adopt a proactive attitude to attain continuous improvement and resilience in line with the Industry 5.0 paradigm? 
• In which ways do digital transformation and the relating smart and digital technologies of Industry 5.0 contribute to the effort of addressing the global and local challenges? Is technology an instrument, an enabler or a multiplier of value in these complex contexts?
• How can digital innovation support decision-making, policy-making and governance in the complex process of recovery from shocks as experienced by companies, institutions and (smart) cities?
• What is the impact of data-driven strategies, orientation and decision-making on the development of innovation 5.0? 
• How can security and privacy risks be managed in line with the Industry 5.0. paradigm? 
• What kind of skills and dynamic capabilities are required to challenge the technological evolution posed by Industry 5.0 and foster the development of innovation? 
• How can the connection between innovation, Innovation 5.0. and business model innovation be conceptualised?
• How can Industry 5.0. and Innovation 5.0. in the smart city context be conceived?
• How can such concepts as sustainability, liveability, well-being, resilience, etc. in the smart city context of Industry 5.0 be reconciled through innovation? 
• How can the Industry 5.0 paradigm modify and be harmonized with regulatory frameworks
• Which public policy tools and approaches to apply to efficiently foster innovation in the Industry 5.0. paradigm?
• Can the digital technologies of Industry 5.0 improve value and knowledge creation in smart ecosystems and enable innovation?
• How can resilient, human-centered innovation ecosystems be built?
• How can the fields of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management contribute to a better understanding of innovation ecosystems in Industry 5.0?

Guest Editors:

Anna Visvizi, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Warsaw, Poland, [email protected]

Orlando Troisi, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy, [email protected]

Submissions Information:

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available at: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ejim

Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/ejim#author-guidelines

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to ““Please select the issue you are submitting to”. 

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key deadlines:

Opening date: 3rd of April, 2023
Closing date: 3rd of July, 2023

Email for submissions: [email protected]