Special Issue "Fourth Revolution and Sustainability"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Nir Kshetri
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Management, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27412, USA
Interests: blockchain; internet of things; Fourth Industrial Revolution; Global South; institutional theory

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Radical innovations and technologies have brought about a fundamental shift in the global economy. This phenomenon, which is commonly referred to as the Fourth Revolution (4R), or other roughly interchangeable terms such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and Industry 4.0, can be attributed to disruptive technologies such as 3D printing, fifth-generation (5G) telecoms, augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous vehicles, biotechnology, blockchain, big data, genome editing, Internet of Things, nanotechnology, quantum computing, remote sensing (satellite imagery and drones), robotics (including collaborative robots or co-bots), and wearables. The confluence and convergence of technologies related to the 4R have made it possible to take actions and make decisions that can have a profound impact on sustainability-related practices of governments, businesses, and consumers.

In recent years, an increasing number of researchers have started to explore how 4R technologies such as AI (e.g., Vinuesa et al., 2020).), biotechnology (Thomson, 2008), and blockchain can affect the sustainability-related practices of firms, consumers and governments. However, 4R technologies are relatively new and rapidly developing. New research is thus needed to understand the 4R-led changes in sustainability-related behaviors of organizations and individuals. Moreover, the combination of different 4R technologies can have especially broader and more powerful impacts on environmental and societal sustainability. In little research have scholars examined how different 4R technologies can be combined to have an amplified impact on sustainability. This Special Issue aims to fill these gaps and to widen and deepen our understanding of how sustainability is likely to be affected by radical innovations.

References

Kshetri, Nir (2018). Blockchain’s Roles in Meeting Key Supply Chain Management Objectives, International Journal of Information Management 39, 80–89.

Kshetri, Nir (2020). Blockchain’s potential impacts on supply chain sustainability in developing countries, Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings 2020, 7–11 August.

Thomson J.A. (2008). The role of biotechnology for agricultural sustainability in Africa. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 363: 905–913.

Vinuesa, R. et al., (2020). The role of artificial intelligence in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, Nature Communications 233, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-14108-y.

Prof. Dr. Nir Kshetri
Guest Editor

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 papers will be 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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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 1900 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

  • fourth revolution
  • artificial intelligence
  • blockchain
  • satellite imagery

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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Article
Application of Machine Learning Techniques in Injection Molding Quality Prediction: Implications on Sustainable Manufacturing Industry
Sustainability 2021, 13(8), 4120; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084120 - 07 Apr 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 807
Abstract
With sustainable growth highlighted as a key to success in Industry 4.0, manufacturing companies attempt to optimize production efficiency. In this study, we investigated whether machine learning has explanatory power for quality prediction problems in the injection molding industry. One concern in the [...] Read more.
With sustainable growth highlighted as a key to success in Industry 4.0, manufacturing companies attempt to optimize production efficiency. In this study, we investigated whether machine learning has explanatory power for quality prediction problems in the injection molding industry. One concern in the injection molding industry is how to predict, and what affects, the quality of the molding products. While this is a large concern, prior studies have not yet examined such issues especially using machine learning techniques. The objective of this article, therefore, is to utilize several machine learning algorithms to test and compare their performances in quality prediction. Using several machine learning algorithms such as tree-based algorithms, regression-based algorithms, and autoencoder, we confirmed that machine learning models capture the complex relationship and that autoencoder outperforms comparing accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. Feature importance tests also revealed that temperature and time are influential factors that affect the quality. These findings have strong implications for enhancing sustainability in the injection molding industry. Sustainable management in Industry 4.0 requires adapting artificial intelligence techniques. In this manner, this article may be helpful for businesses that are considering the significance of machine learning algorithms in their manufacturing processes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fourth Revolution and Sustainability)
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Review

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Review
Striding towards Sustainability: A Framework to Overcome Challenges and Explore Opportunities through Industry 4.0
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5232; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095232 - 07 May 2021
Viewed by 716
Abstract
Sustainability 4.0 (S4.0) enables sustainable development through intelligent technologies to meet economic, environmental and social demands. The main objective of this article is to propose a framework for developing S4.0 in sectors of Triple Helix (TH) (Government, Organizations and Academy). The framework consists [...] Read more.
Sustainability 4.0 (S4.0) enables sustainable development through intelligent technologies to meet economic, environmental and social demands. The main objective of this article is to propose a framework for developing S4.0 in sectors of Triple Helix (TH) (Government, Organizations and Academy). The framework consists of benchmarking of policies and initiatives from the Science-Technology Scenario in S4.0 (STS-S4.0) and the author’s experience. The STS-4.0 is a snapshot of relevant initiatives from the countries that performed best in science and technology in S4.0. This work uses the methods of bibliometric studies and content analysis of scientific articles from the Scopus database and patents publications from the Orbit database. This research resulted in a total of 19 propositions for developing sustainability through I4.0. Of these, eight are for Government, six for Organizations and five for Academy. The main scientific contribution of this work is to expand and deepen the recent block of knowledge on S4.0. As for the applied contribution, this work contributes to the conscious and sustainable development of humanity through the technological elements of I4.0, contributing to the achievement of the following SDGs proposed by the UN: 9 (Industries, Innovation and Infrastructure), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and 13 (Climate Action). The main novelty of this article is the creation of paths for Government, Organizations and Academy to interactively lead the development of global sustainability through the smart technologies of I4.0. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fourth Revolution and Sustainability)
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