Innovation of Sustainable Business Models in the Era of Industry 4.0: Digitalization, Servitization, Circularity and Resilience
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 103
Special Issue Editors
Interests: controlling; financial management; management accounting; sustainable corporate finance; business model innovation; digital transformation; circular economy; industry 4.0-driven management systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: corporate finance; fuzzy controlling systems; sustainability performance measurement; behavioral decision theory; digital transformation
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue “Innovation of Sustainable Business Models in the Era of Industry 4.0: Digitalization, Servitization, Circularity and Resilience” explores how digital transformation reshapes sustainable business models and corporate performance. Our objective is to investigate how Industry 4.0 technologies (AI, big data analytics, and IoT), servitization strategies, and circular economy practices jointly contribute to organizational resilience and the creation of long‑term value.
We welcome the submission of theoretical, methodological, and empirical studies that integrate sustainability principles with data‑driven management and performance measurement. This Special Issue will supplement the existing literature by explicitly linking digital servitization and circularity with sustainability‑oriented business model design, resource efficiency, and risk‑resilient operations. This focus aligns with Sustainability’s mission to advance multidimensional approaches that can define, measure, and monitor sustainability, offering policy and managerial implications for responsible innovation in uncertain socio‑economic environments.
Prof. Dr. Zoltán Zéman
Dr. Gergő Thalmeiner
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- sustainable business models
- industry 4.0
- digital transformation
- servitization
- circular economy
- corporate resilience
- sustainability performance
- business model innovation
- value creation
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