Organizational Models for Industry 4.0: Lean, Agile and Service-Oriented Organizations

This book draws on a neo-institutional theory to characterize service-oriented manufacturing firms in relation to more familiar organizational forms, such as lean and agile. It sheds light on whether being lean is a prerequisite for agile organizations and whether agile organizations are precursors of service-oriented organizations.

The book empirically examines the prevalence of such organizations using representative samples of manufacturing firms in an industrialized country. This approach makes it possible to “zoom in” and determine whether the extent of adoption of digital manufacturing innovations, digital services, and service-oriented business models varies with organizations’ size, industry, product complexity, lot size, type of design process, and type of manufacturing process.

In turn, it shows which digital manufacturing innovations, lean practices, and services contribute to leanness-related performance capabilities like quality and costs; agility-related capabilities like fast delivery, flexibility and innovation; and service-oriented capabilities like high service performance and digitalization. In addition, it explores the question of whether lean, agile, and service-oriented performance capabilities contribute to financial performance separately or jointly.

About the Author

Mantas Vilkas is a Professor in Operations and Technology Management and a member of the Digitalization Research Group in the School of Economics and Business at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. His current research focuses on the interaction of technology and organization with a particular focus on digital transformation.

Jurga Duobienė is an Associate Professor in Human Resource Management and a member of the Digitalization Research Group in the School of Economics and Business at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. Her research focuses on the impact of digitalization on HRM and employees of all levels, combining the areas of organizational development, business ethics, digital transformation and international migration.

Rimantas Rauleckas is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities at Kaunas University of Technology. His current research focuses on public management and quantitative research methods in social sciences.

Aušra Rūtelionė is an Associate Professor in Marketing and a member of the Sustainable Management Research Group in the School of Economics and Business at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. Her research focuses on sustainable consumption behavior, marketing approaches for the circular economy, and circular design for circular behavior.

Beata Šeinauskienė is an Associate Professor in Marketing and a member of the Sustainable Management Research Group in the School of Economics and Business at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. Her research focuses on international marketing, consumer materialism, and maladaptive consumer behavior.