The prevention of food loss throughout the supply chain, including manufacturers, has become a major challenge for a number of organisations. In addition, consumers are also increasingly interested in the authenticity of food and want to ensure that they receive the right quality of food. To address this issue, there is a need for reliable and robust tools to be available in the Industry 4.0 era that can trace the food throughout the supply chain from the farm through processing until it reaches the customer and, thus, ensure transparency. Using the people, process, and technology (PPT) model, this paper develops a blockchain-enabled food supply chain framework including the future opportunities and the present impediments based on the systematic literature review and semi-structured case interviews from the context of emerging economies. The study investigates the suitability of blockchain technology in resolving major challenges, such as traceability, trust, and accountability in the food industry. The study further paves the way for future researchers to address the technological and people-related challenges in the Industry 4.0 era to mitigate the emerging problems in the food sector. Interestingly, we did not find many issues in process- and performance-related aspects. The study offers empirical evidence of blockchain technology implementation in the Industry 4.0 era that opens up the discussion for future researchers and lists the potential threats.

In the recent few years, with an increase in focus on sustainability, firms have been actively pursuing different strategies to contribute towards sustainability. Industry 4.0 (I4) technologies can help organizations to achieve superior environmental as well as economic performance. Through the lens of stakeholder theory (ST) and Schumpeterian view of competition (SCV), this paper examines whether stakeholder and competitive pressures towards sustainability stimulate organizations to implement I4 technologies and commensurate performance outcomes. The study further tests the mediating role of environmental commitment and green process innovation (GPI) on these relationships. The proposed hypotheses are examined using the survey data from 173 manufacturing firms in India by partial least squares (PLS) approach. Findings show that environmental commitment mediates the effect of stakeholder and competitive pressures on I4 technologies. Further, results also show that GPI mediates between I4 technologies and performance. The findings provide insights for managers on how they can best respond to stakeholder and competitive pressures on sustainability and contribute towards sustainable development.

Industry 4.0 (I4) technologies are gaining increased importance in the manufacturing industry, as they can provide several benefits such as an increase in efficiency, lower costs, higher revenues, etc. This article empirically examines the critical success factors (CSF) for implementing I4 technologies in Indian automotive manufacturing industry. In this regard, CSF and performance outcomes of I4 technologies are identified from published literature. The relationships between CSF and performance outcomes are then examined by regression analysis. The results indicate that “Data governance” is the most critical factor, as it affects all the four performance outcomes (operational, product, economic, and responsiveness). Similarly, “Legal aspects” affects three out of the four performance outcomes (operational, product, and economic performance), while “Collaboration and teamwork” affects only operational performance and responsiveness. The study provides an understanding of factors which are critical in achieving performance outcomes about I4 technologies in the automotive manufacturing industry. The findings can also help automotive manufacturing firms toward an informed decision making in terms of various strategies required to adopt I4 technologies successfully.