Since Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum declared the arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there has been much discussion about it. However, there is no commonly agreed-upon definition of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Therefore, we attempted to answer the following four research questions. “What is the definition of the Fourth Industrial Revolution?”, “How can we respond to the Fourth Industrial Revolution in terms of institutions?”, “How can we respond to the Fourth Industrial Revolution in terms of technology?”, “How can we respond to the Fourth Industrial Revolution in terms of firm innovation and start-up strategy?” Brainstorming was conducted by 11 scholars from several countries to answer these four research questions. Therefore, this research is not the end product of four research questions, but a kind of advanced template to answer the four research questions for continuing research.

As engineering is required to answer directly and more heartily than before the requirement of society and markets, we want to answer the following questions. What kind of open innovation channels exist, and how can these channels operate as a knowledge funnel to conquer the growth limit of capitalism in the 4th industrial revolution? At first, we built up the concept model of open innovation engineering from a conceptual experiment and attempted to prove this model by literature reviews. Second, we applied this open innovation concept model at the papers of Society of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity (SOI) 2019 Special Issues of Electronics as a preliminary study. Additional field researches on each open innovation engineering channel in addition to research on finding out more open innovation engineering channels are required.

The competitive bidding system has been to blame for abnormally low bids, which are considered as one of the main causes of poor project quality. Previous studies have regarded the pricing of bidders as an optimum decision based on contractor’s cost and market competition level. However, the sell to produce characteristic of construction projects may induce contractors to offer a low bid and then make up the amount initially sacrificed from beyond-contractual reward (BCR) gained through cutting corners and claims. System dynamics was adopted in this study to develop a contractor’s pricing model with consideration of the dimensions of cost, market competition, and BCR. The model was then examined by statistical analysis of data collected from 44 highway projects in Taiwan. It was found that the equilibrium market price is significantly associated with BCR, which is assumed to be determined by the strictness of the owner’s construction management, including both soundness of contract and tightness in construction supervision. Research results suggest that contractors divide the market into different segments according to the owner’s strictness of construction management and the equilibrium price level of each market segment varies. The price level for projects with a strict owner is remarkably higher than for those with relatively less strict owners. Improvement in the construction management system of projects is crucial to lower the possibility that contractors gain BCR and do opportunistic bidding, and to further enhance project quality.

Purpose: This paper proposes an integrated knowledge visualization and digital twin system for supporting strategic management decisions. The concepts and applications of strategic architecture have been illustrated with a concrete real-world case study and decision rules of using the strategic digital twin management decision system (SDMDS) as a more visualized, adaptive and effective model for decision-making.Design/methodology/approach: This paper integrates the concepts of mental and computer models and examines a real case's business operations by applying system dynamics modelling and digital technologies. The enterprise digital twin system with displaying real-world data and simulations for future scenarios demonstrates an improved process of strategic decision-making in the digital age.Findings: The findings reveal that data analytics and the visualized enterprise digital twin system offer better practices for strategic management decisions in the dynamic and constantly changing business world by providing a constant and frequent adjustment on every decision that affects how the business performs over both operational and strategic timescales.Originality/value: In the digital age and dynamic business environment, the proposed strategic architecture and managerial digital twin system converts the existing conceptual models into an advanced operational model. It can facilitate the development of knowledge visualization and become a more adaptive and effective model for supporting real-time management decision-making by dealing with the complicated dependence of constant flow of data input, output and the feedback loop across business units and boundaries.

While corporate social responsibility (CSR) is prevailing, the concept of creating shared value (CSV) by coordinating business activities and social concerns brings a great opportunity to transforming the business model for sustainable development. To better understand the systems comprising corporate shared value chains would be beneficial to economics, society, and sustainability. This study refers to the ecosystem as the theoretical lens in the exploration of the CSV components and contexts, and takes Macy’s as a focal case. In terms of academic contributions, this study generalizes the CSV components, including markets, social innovations, social performances, new business models, corporate entrepreneurship, and social network support. The research findings contribute to conceptualize and systemize the concept of CSV. In terms of practical contributions, the contexts for the operation of CSV, as summarized by this study, can serve as a template for corporate planning of CSV activities and sustainable development.