ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses some major trends, which are likely to affect the business model of organizations sooner or later. It presents Industry 4.0 and the Smart Factory and Factory of the Future concepts, and develop some thought about the possible implications these concepts may have for business models and their innovation. The chapter discusses a new trend in globalization, namely backshoring and its business model implications. It develops some suggestions on the increasing recognition not only to pursue economic but also social and environmental excellence. The Smart Factory is less easy to trace back to a project or program. Smart manufacturing and machines-to-machines, machines-to-humans, and humans-to-machines integration and communication increase the possibilities for companies to reorganize their organizational structures, by transforming “mechanistic” structures into “organic” ones. In smart factories, the role of employees will change significantly. Industry 4.0 has a range of network-level implications and related challenges.
