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Modern diplomacy in the 21st century has become increasingly complex, requiring a broader scope or the performance of more tasks that extend beyond the traditional high politics of old. This means that current diplomats must deal with more diverse global concerns due to the nature of the post-Cold War era marked by diplomatic inflation, the decline of US hegemony, the rise of China, nuclear proliferation, climate change, globalisation, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), and the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to this diversification of the diplomatic agendas and the inclusion of a growing number of stakeholders, the diplomatic field is experiencing an amplified array of challenges. Therefore, this article examines these major changes and their impact on modern diplomacy by utilising the theoretical framework of the English School where the emphasis is on a 'society of states' and a world united by common humanity. The research also employs a comprehensive qualitative analysis of the mentioned post-Cold War issues and how diplomacy can contribute to mitigating them. The paper then concludes by recommending the need for a more specialised diplomatic corps who are well-versed in technological advancements and digital platforms. By becoming more specialised, diplomacy can become more effective and thus, remain a vital tool in navigating the intricacies of contemporary international politics while mitigating the major challenges the globe faces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The high frequency of disruption and dislocation of many industries, the migration to low-cost countries of different assets and activities, the increase in systemic risk, the birth of social and ecological constraints, as well as the new worldwide competitors require businesses and the overall society to change. In a so-called Industry 4.0. era, understanding the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in developed as well as in underdeveloped economies has become increasingly crucial. The purpose of this study is to shed the light on the peculiarities of Chinese AI assessing the state of art of AI in this unique and valuable context. Design/methodology/approach: Through a research based on a qualitative data analysis, the present paper suggests a new way to analyse AI and to support a better understanding of the local Chinese aspects influencing its development and implementation. Findings: The development and implementation of AI in China required tailor solutions which account for the following three main dimensions: the location (i.e. territorial extension, the administrative boundaries); the government approach; and the human capital. Originality/value: The analysis presents a broad level activity. In addition, the paper focused on Chinese scientific literature and different types of data (i.e. institutional documents, professional reports, websites and speeches in Chinese). The paper used a multi-faceted approach, including also the tacit knowledge of the authors about the context under investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's foremost national goal is to become a major space power by 2030. Consequently, President Xi Jinping has made the launch of the BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) and promotion of a "BDS global network" a national priority. BDS represents a frontier technology of the "fourth industrial revolution" which ushered in the digital age. Using BeiDou as a case study, this paper attempts to analyze the structural features of China's frontier technology strategy and its impact on China's global influence. Significantly, BDS has both military and civilian applications, which is a prominent feature of today's cutting edge technologies. Therefore, a focus on BDS will deepen our understanding of how China is exploring these new types of dual-purpose technologies to expand its global reach. The paper argues that by dramatically restructuring its decision-making process under Xi Jinping, China has been able to adopt a state-led national strategy for using BeiDou domestically, while expanding its global reach through a market-driven approach. This strategy has facilitated the penetration of Chinese BDS applications into the economies and societies of many developing (and some developed) countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The beginning of this century is characterized by deepening globalization and one of the main features of this process is global foreign direct investment flows. The relevance of foreign direct investment as a source of economic growth is inevitable and it has sound theoretical foundation. Despite this fact, many forces shaping the global economy receive a significant amount of attention, but foreign direct investment is often overlooked. Technological progress, trade and foreign direct investment are interrelated. Namely, foreign direct investment has greatly accelerated the spread of innovation and technology, while the technological advances especially in the era of Industry 4.0 have been driving the dynamics of foreign direct investment. Due to expected positive impacts, many countries are continuing policy efforts aimed at attracting foreign direct investment. However, foreign direct investment is experiencing new trends. Over the last few decades the global map of inward and outward foreign direct investment has changed significantly. There are new players with increasing roles in the global foreign direct investment area which are reshaping the world economy. Global foreign direct investment is undergoing a shift as emerging markets countries both inflows and outflows rise dramatically. For example, China's outbound foreign direct investment has been growing dramatically in recent years, and impacted significant shifts in the global economy. Motives for foreign direct investment, as well as the type are changing due to globalization and new trends, especially high liberalization of trade. The proliferation of global value chains also influenced foreign direct investment trends. One of the examples is necessity of rethinking the framework on motives of foreign direct investment when analyzing emerging market multinational enterprises and their interdependent relationships within global value chains. The contribution of the paper is three-fold. Firstly, the paper gives an overview of key global and regional foreign direct investment trends. Secondly, key factors, as well as potential impacts of these changes are explored. Thirdly, paper offers recommendations for new investment policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The technological advancements promote the rise of the fourth industrial revolution, where key terms are efficiency, innovation, and enterprises' digitalization. Market globalization, product mass customization, and more complex products need to reflect on changing the actual design methods and developing business processes and methodologies that have to be data-driven, AI-assisted, smart, and service-oriented. Therefore, there is a great interest in experimenting with emerging technologies and evaluating how they impact the actual business processes. This paper reports a comparison among the major trends in the digitalization of a Factory of the Future, in conjunction with the two major strategic programs of Industry 4.0 and China 2025. We have focused on these two programs because we have had experience with them in the context of the FIRST H2020 project. European industrialists identify the radical change in the traditional manufacturing production process as the rise of Industry 4.0. Conversely, China mainland launched its strategic plan in China 2025 to promote smart manufacturing to digitalize traditional manufacturing processes. The main contribution of this review paper is to report about a study, conducted and part of the aforementioned FIRST project, which aimed to investigate major trends in applying for both programs in terms of technologies and their applications for the factory's digitalization. In particular, our analysis consists of the comparison between Digital Factory, Virtual Factory, Smart Manufacturing, and Cloud Manufacturing. We analyzed their essential characteristics, the operational boundaries, the employed technologies, and the interoperability offered at each factory level for each paradigm. Based on this analysis, we report the building blocks in terms of essential technologies required to develop the next generation of a factory of the future, as well as some of the interoperability challenges at a different scale, for enabling inter-factories communications between heterogeneous entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: Tourism management is a critical factor in developing quality human resources. Establishing a scientific and practical system to assess the quality of tourism management and identify and improve problems in tourism management is essential to ensure the quality of tourism management and realize human development goals. OBJECTIVES: In order to solve the current problems of China's tourism management, such as weak teachers, STEAM being too "soft," and leadership being too "hard," the concept of STEAM distance learning, literature analysis and other research methods are proposed, and the quality assessment system of tourism management for the bachelor's degree in tourism management is researched in the standard documents of education and management and related literature. METHODS: Established through interviews with qualified experts, tourism teachers, tourism professionals and others. Factor analysis was used to adjust the system of indicators for tourism students and define an evaluation system consisting of level 1 and corresponding level 2 indicators to determine the weights of the indicators. RESULTS: The results show that students are satisfied with "average" internships. The lowest level of satisfaction was with the "evaluation of the training process," but this indicator was the highest. Further analysis of the results suggests insufficient investment in professional practice in tourism management. CONCLUSION: This paper argues that the empirical research and analysis of the current tourism management students can be used to understand the accurate evaluation of tourism management activities based on the solution of the existing problems to improve students' innovative and practical abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Industry 4.0 is important for China to achieve industrial upgrading and promoting the quality of manufacturing development. This paper investigates the driving force of the Industry 4.0 in China's manufacture industry, and evaluates the impact of Industry 4.0 on firm's performance. First, a textual mining is conducted to identify 460 companies that are implementing Industry 4.0 strategy, and then a Probit model is adopted to examine the driving forces of Industry 4.0. Through the propensity scores matching difference-in-difference method, the impacts of Industry 4.0 on firm's performance are evaluated. The results reveal that private and large companies show a higher motivation to promote the Industry 4.0 strategy, and government subsidies have no significant impact on firm's Industry 4.0 decision. The implementation of Industry 4.0 can significant improves firm's financial performance, innovation activities and stock returns, but has no significant impact on supply chain efficiency. In addition, the adoption of Industry 4.0 has positive impact on firm's information transparency grade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The key identification element of the smart factory is the interconnection between devices, which solves the production method and development dilemma of the factory under Industry 3.0 and previous models. The new article published by Xinhua News Agency on January 16, 2022, advocates the idea of industry+ Internet, and its main goal is to realize intelligent production. At present, smart factories have become the main development direction of industrial enterprises in the world. 5G technology has been rapidly deployed with the development of mobile communication, and its performance has also been greatly improved compared to previous communication technologies. After China put forward the smart manufacturing 2025 plan, although a large number of enterprises are still lingering in the process of research, learning, and exploration, the idea of Industry 4.0 has taken root in various intelligent manufacturing enterprises, and the development route of Chinese manufacturing enterprises in the future has been ahead of schedule. Direction. Based on the basic theory of Industry 4.0, 5G wireless communication, Internet of Things, and smart factories, this paper firstly distributed questionnaires to 20 enterprises with smart factories by means of network and interview and reanalyzed the collected questionnaires by regression analysis method and then used the questionnaire scale analysis method to analyze the reliability and validity of the questionnaire and combined with the results of the questionnaire analysis to analyze the problems existing in the current smart factory. Finally, based on the background of Industry 4.0 and 5G communication technology, combined with the Internet of Things technology, the development layout of the smart factory is designed; that is, based on the elliptic curve encryption algorithm, the signature mechanism of mutual trust of all electronic devices in the IoT smart factory is set to improve the smart factory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In the ongoing Industry 4.0 era, the internet of things (IoT) has become a global race in the current information technology climate. However, little is understood about the pattern of the global competitive arena or its players' set up strategy. This paper aims to attempt to compare the cross-country development of the IoT industry. In particular, from the lens of industrial policies, this paper highlights how China, as a latecomer, gains momentum to emerge victorious as a leader in this global race. Design/methodology/approach: Based on five dimensions, namely, foundation, trajectory, characteristic, application and social impacts, this paper presents the evolution of the IoT industry in the USA, European Union, Japan, South Korea and China. From the lens of windows of opportunities, this paper analyzes how China seized the opportunity with the emerging technology, thereby, enabling it to create a competitive advantage. Findings: This paper finds that China's IoT industry takes a distinct trajectory, where scientific institutions, enterprises and governmental policies collaborate in unison, during which the first phase was when scientific research institutions introduced the conceptual new technology from developed countries. This technological foresight allowed for the identification and realization of critical technologies, strategic fields and technological trends. The second phase was the continuous dissatisfaction of capabilities of critical technologies, which creates disruptions that significantly altered the environment of technological competition. Originality/value: This paper provides a comprehensive and comparative review of IoT industries in a global context, with the critical and influential role of the windows of opportunities on those enterprises lagging behind the technological wave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: The Fourth Industrial Revolution brings with it numerous challenges for society, business and government. Its nature and pace is dictated by the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The acquisition, collection, analysis, processing and informed use of data, as well as the continued development of artificial intelligence algorithms, are becoming the basis for the development of modern economies. However, its implementation is associated with a number of opportunities as well as threats. The way and extent to which artificial intelligence-based technologies are used requires constant attention, the basis of which is an appropriate regulatory system. Aim: The purpose of the paper is indicating and discussing selected challenges facing people and institutions responsible for creating regulations regarding the use and implementation of artificial intelligence. The regulators should, therefore, find a proper balance between innovation and credibility. Results: The analysis of the available literature allows to indicate at least 3 important challenges facing regulators: these are providing a precise definition of AI, ethical threats and competition in terms of creating suitable regulations regarding AI. The European Union has developed regulations on artificial intelligence with respect for freedom and human rights. This is a different approach from other regions of the world, including regulations established in the US or China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of Industry 4.0, economic development has become a rapid information age. The content of macroeconomic forecast is very extensive, and the existence of big data technology can provide the government with multilevel, diversified, and complete information and comprehensively process, integrate, summarize, and classify these pieces of information. This paper forecasts the CPI value in the next 12 months according to the CPI in China in the recent 20 years. Compared with the traditional forecasting methods, the forecasting results have higher accuracy and timeliness. At the same time, the trend of growth rate of industrial value-added is analyzed, and the experiments on MAE and RMSE show that the method proposed in this paper has obvious advantages. It also analyzes the disadvantages of traditional psychological decision-making behavior analysis, introduces the development status and advantages of big data-driven psychological decision-making behavior analysis, and opens up new research ideas for psychological decision-making analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Taking smart manufacturing as a strategy for industrial development, China has put forward a people-oriented policy and launched a series of plans for smart manufacturing talent education (SMTE). The demand for smart manufacturing talents in ten priority areas and the industrial applications in China is very huge. Therefore, in this paper, a reference system of SMTE in China is presented, which includes discipline system, training system, practice system, and assessment system. In order to further refine the architecture of smart manufacturing system, a reference course system was proposed; the system contains seven layers, which are basic layer, technique layer, implementation layer, management layer, platform layer, application layer, and industrialization layer. Finally, nine stakeholders of the common operation body were investigated, and a reference implementation of SMTE in China was put forward. In this paper, the smart manufacturing talent education reference system, reference model, and related reference subsystems can be a very useful guideline for Chinese industry and education to design, set, and carry out the smart manufacturing talent education system. At the same time, the system has its reference value for the improvement of China's smart manufacturing system architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of novel energy vehicles, power generation, photovoltaics, and other industries, power electronic devices have gained considerable attention. Insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) have been widely used in those fields. With the emergence of intelligent manufacturing concepts such as Germany's "Industry 4.0" and China's "Made in China 2025", conventional manufacturing which needs to be upgraded with higher efficiency and yield is rapidly pivoting toward digitalization and intelligence. The digital twin methodology has been extensively used in various industries for constructing virtual models of physical entities, facilitating real-time data interconnection to reduce costs and improve efficiency. This study proposes a modular intelligent IGBT production line based on the digital twin. Real-time data are transmitted from a physical line to a digital line for storage and analysis. The digital line is visualized, and an intelligent management platform containing multiple functions is developed. Additionally, a process simulation database is established to obtain the optimal process parameters. Numerous quality issues that can arise during each process of IGBT packaging are addressed using a problem-solving approach based on the digital twin methodology. Consequently, this digital-twin-based IGBT intelligent production line effectively enhances yield rates and efficiency. IGBT modules with various packaging forms such as ACF, ACE, and ACD are manufactured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of the industry's inability to meet societal demand, Industry 4.0 was launched in the last decade years. To close the gap, the academic and industrial sectors are pursuing revolution. One strategy for moving forward is digital transformation, and the digital twin is the technology that best exemplifies this strategy by upending conventional industrial processes and functions. This paper will help audiences who lack expert knowledge of digital twins to swiftly evaluate and comprehend research advancements in academia and industry. It will cover the background, features, and implementation of the digital twin in five main sectors. The case study used in this paper is Qinghai Meadow in China, which uses the intended network to explain how digital twins have developed in the husbandry sector. At the end of the study, issues are also illustrated from two perspectives that aid in identifying gaps in the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0, also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is characterized by process automation and digitization and the use of technologies such as the Internet of things, cloud, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and embedded systems, among others. The application of automation technology based on Industry 4.0 contributes to the realization of a sustainable food security regime. Based on the policy guidance of the "No.1 Document" of the Chinese government on seed industry innovation and the quantitative analysis of the application, authorization, research, and development data of new varieties of agricultural plants in China in recent years, as well as the data of food import and export, this paper studies the risks and challenges facing China's food security at present and explores the significance, existing problems, and specific countermeasures of resolving food security risks through seed industry innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies have elevated the capabilities and possibilities of improvement and efficiency in the energy sector. This paper interrogates how energy companies in South Africa, Germany and China apply 4IR technologies. A total of 26 energy companies in those countries were surveyed. An analysis was carried out using the Cronbach Alpha, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests. Survey results indicate that 85% of companies acknowledge good levels of participation in the 4IR, and were clear about which 4IR technologies are important, although few companies develop these themselves. Technologies enabling access to big, real-time data (BRTD) and BRTD analysis software, are valued the most in measured importance, efficiency, reliability and ability to be integrated across the energy system. The transfer of data using the Internet of things ranked highly as a 4IR technology, whereas artificial intelligence, robotics and machine-human integration (also referred to as machine-human interaction) are considered less important, efficient, and reliable. China rates 4IR technologies as more important than South Africa and Germany do. For South Africa to be competitive in the global energy sector it needs to engage with and embrace 4IR technologies to a greater extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 is derived from the concept of German industry, and its essence is to use technology for efficient production. However, the evolution in wireless technologies has opened the door to a new class of plant automation architecture that offers adopters a significant strategic advantage. Under the historical background of advocating low-carbon production, energy conservation and environmental protection, and sustainable development in various fields, the awareness of ecological energy conservation and environmental protection has gradually become a mainstream ideology. This paper principally studies the application of energy conservation and environmental protection green decoration materials in public architectural engineering projects to show the advantages of energy conservation and environmental protection green decoration materials in architectural decoration construction and analyzes the future development direction of public architectural decoration in China. Therefore, it is of great significance to improve the public environment and develop new ways of housing renovation with sustainable development goals to create a sustainable Industry 4.0 combining environmental protection and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of Big Data, Industry 4.0, and other technologies, the concept of smart city has become a new goal, new concept, and new practice of many urban developments. It provides a method to solve the problem that public management cannot optimize resources in China's urban development and puts forward a supporting scheme more in line with the optimization of public management resources. Effective use of relevant supporting schemes can improve urban public management capacity, optimize resources, and promote the city to embark on the road of scientific development. This paper starts with the multiobjective optimization algorithm to optimize the matching of public resources and realize the effective utilization of public management resources. Using particle swarm optimization algorithm, the optimal allocation management of 8 kinds of resources in this paper is carried out, and the optimization analysis is carried out from the performance indexes, such as resource allocation time and configuration complexity. Finally, the weights of the eight resources in importance, complexity, and resource demand are 0.4, 0.4, and 0.2, respectively. The proposed method realizes the classification of resources and the optimal matching of resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategic response to Industry 4.0 for Chinese automotive industry and to identify the critical factors for its successful implementation.Design/methodology/approach A technological, organizational, and environmental framework is used to build the structural models, and statistical tools are used to validate the model. The data analysis helps to determine which factors have impact on the strategic response and whether their relationships are positive or negative. Interpretive structural modeling method is applied to further analyze these derived factors for depicting the relationship.Findings The result shows that company size and nature do not increase the use of advanced production technologies, while other factors have positive impacts on improving the technology adoption among the companies surveyed.Practical implications A strategic response to Industry 4.0 not only helps in improving organizational competitiveness, but it also has social and economic implications. For this purpose, empirical data are collected to measure the understanding of Industry 4.0 in the Chinese automotive industry.Originality/value Despite the fact that the Chinese Government has proposed the “Made in China 2025” approach as a way to promote smart manufacturing, little empirical evidence exists in the literature validating company’s perspective toward Industry 4.0. This paper is to fill the research gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the evolution of the technology war between China and the USA in a context of exacerbation of techno-nationalist strategies for industrial and technological development. This analysis refers mainly to the Chinese strategy to deploy Industry 4.0 and the implications derived from US imposed restrictions on Chinese efforts to develop indigenous technologies that are central in the forthcoming paradigm. The hypothesis is that such policies, by boosting Industry 4.0, aim to create a new techno-economic paradigm and thus reconfigure the bases of inter-capitalist and interstate competition. The main contribution to the literature is providing an analysis of the implications of the technology war between China and the USA in different layers of the Industry 4.0 techno-economic paradigm, in addition to the mainstream debate about the transition to 5G communication networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart manufacturing is a key element in Industry 4.0. However, studies on the relationship between manufacturers' network structure and their technology standardization capability are not available. As such, this paper develops a model to explore the relationships among enterprises' network structure, their knowledge acquisition capability and their technology standardization capability. A survey on manufacturers in China is conducted. Hypotheses are developed, and structural equation modelling is applied to analyse the model. The results indicate that the three dimensions of enterprises' network structure are positively related with their technology standardization capability. Enterprises' knowledge acquisition capability mediates the relationship between their network structure and their technology standardization capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the analysis of 5G and Internet of Things technology, this paper proposes the reference architecture of smart factory and its application path for traditional manufacturing enterprises in China, in which the intelligent manufacturing workshop is the core component of smart factory. The Internet of Things technology combined the advanced technologies (Industrial Big Data, WSN, RFID, Cloud Computing Platform) and provides hardware network foundation and technical theory for designing the real-time tracking and monitoring system of intelligent workshop products. The developed system has the advantages of low cost, rapid deployment, and convenient expansion, which traditional manufacturing enterprises realize intelligent management based on IoT application platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the value creation mechanisms of open-standard inter-organizational information system (OSIOS), which is a key technology to achieve Industry 4.0. Specifically, this study investigates how the internal assimilation and external diffusion of OSIOS help manufactures facilitate process adaptability and alignment in supply chain network. Design/methodology/approach: A survey instrument was designed and administrated to collect data for this research. Using three-stage least squares estimation, the authors empirically tested a number of hypothesized relationships based on a sample of 308 manufacturing firms in China. Findings: The results of the study show that OSIOS can perform as value creation mechanisms to enable process adaptability and alignment. In addition, the impact of OSIOS internal assimilation is inversely U-shaped where the positive effect on process adaptability will become negative after an extremum point is reached. Originality/value: This study contributes to the existing literature by providing insights on how OSIOS can improve supply chain integration and thus promote the achievement of industry 4.0. By revealing a U-shaped relationship between OSIOS assimilation and process adaptability, this study fills previous research gap by advancing the understanding on the value creation mechanisms of information systems deployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Starting from industry 4.0 in Germany and followed by the New Strategy for American Innovation in the USA and the smartization strategy in Japan, developed countries are pushing nation-wide innovation strategies. Similarly, China is pursuing the Made in China 2025, and Korea announced the Manufacturing Industry Innovation 3.0 strategy. However, few researchers have identified the industrial structure that establishes the foundation of the 4th Industrial Revolution or have derived strengths and weaknesses to provide implications on policy formulation through quantitative comparison with developed countries. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the spillover effect of the information and communication technology (ICT) industry (the foundation of the 4th Industrial Revolution) and machinery·equipment industry (the foundation of smart manufacturing through convergence with ICT industry).Design/methodology/approach This study examines the industrial spillover effects of the ICT industry and machinery·equipment industry in the USA, Germany, Japan, China and Korea by using the World Input–Output Table from 2000 to 2014.Findings The results showed that backward linkage effect of the ICT Industry are high in the order of Korea≑China>Japan>the USA≑Germany, and forward linkage effect of the ICT industry are high in the order of Japan ≑> the USA≑Korea ≑> China ≑> Germany. Backward linkage effects of the machinery·equipment industry are high in the order of China>Japan≑Korea>the USA>Germany, and forward linkage effects of the machinery·equipment industry are high in the order of China>Korea>Germany≑Japan≑the USA.Practical implications China and Korea encourage active government investment in ICT and machinery·equipment industries, especially the intentional convergence between ICT and machinery·equipment industries is expected be generate higher synergy. The "innovation in manufacturing" strategy in the USA that utilizes its strength in ICT services seems appropriate, whereas Germany needs to revitalize the ICT industry to strengthen its manufacturing industry. Japan's strategy is to focus its ICT capabilities on robot sector. While the scope of innovation is limited, its synergy is worth expecting.Originality/value This study attempted to provide a theoretical approach to the determination of national policy strategies and provide practical implications for response to the impacts of the 4th Industrial Revolution, by comparing the inducement effects of ICT and machinery·equipment industries between major countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to Industry 4.0 and mainly to rapid innovative technologies and developments like Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, robotics, Big Data and platforms, connected and autonomous systems, 5G, 3D printing, ICT security and block chain, it emerged the need for developing a comprehensive and long-term EU industrial strategy in line with the current technological developments. In March 2019 European Political Strategy Centre from European Commission published a paper entitled EU Industrial Policy after Siemens- Alstom, Finding a new balance between openness and protection. This strategic framework presented by EPSC has an introduction, called The Bigger Picture and two parts: Levelling the Global Playing Field and Industrial Leadership Starts At Home. In the introduction the focus is put on digitalization, electric cars. AI, robotics, 3D printing, completing the Single Market, China's progress and competition. In the first part of strategy the analysis is focused on the role of EU trade policy while in the second part on four major initiatives: Single Market Renaissance, Innovation & funding: fast-tracking investments into the sectors of the future, Regulation & standards: building up 'Brand Europe', Partnerships for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology is being used in our society in all areas, mostly in industry, and generates the most interest in current research since it is a part of day-to-day activities. The main objective of this research was to use bibliometric analysis to analyze the production of scientific literature on digital twin and smart manufacturing with a focus on Industry 4.0, using information from the Web of Science database. To conduct the study, the keywords necessary for data selection were chosen, and then analyzed based on different variables such as author productivity, citations, most productive institutions, publishers with the highest number of publications, scientific document classification, countries with the highest number of publications, and a network analysis using VOSviewer. The results showed Tao F. and Soderberg R. were the main authors, that China was the country with the highest knowledge, and Elsevier was the main publisher. Although the subject has only been in publication for five years, digital twin will constitute an important part of future technologies due to its rapid ascension, proof of this being its yearly productivity (2020 producing the highest number of materials). Papers published in 2021 were excluded, but the difference between the numbers of materials found and those analyzed shows that 2021 will be even more productive than 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 was proposed by Germany, which will bring a revolution in manufacturing. How does China’s manufacturing sector deal with this revolution? The key is to identify problems and provide solutions. Based on the analysis of statistical data and the qualitative analysis, the paper carries out an in-depth analysis of current situation of China’s manufacturing. Then, main problems in China’s manufacturing industry were analyzed. Finally, the paper puts forward concrete countermeasures for China’s manufacturing sector. The countermeasures were as follows: pushing technological innovation by strengthening cooperation of official-industry-university-research-customer, developing manufacturing technology criteria in line with international practice, setting up the intelligent key projects and launching pilot project, and constructing network infrastructure. China’s manufacturing industry is still not very advanced, so it is necessary to seize the opportunity of industry 4.0. The countermeasures proposed in this paper can be used as suggestions for China’s manufacturing sector in the Industry 4.0 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electric discharge bases of the technological advantages of diamond spark grinding make it possible to consider this processing method among the environmentally promising in nature. A decrease in the thermo-mechanical tension of mass micro-cutting in the zone of diamond spark grinding, which is ensured by the development of its working relief, supported by the action of electric discharges on the bond of the wheel, also makes it possible to consider approaches to organizing this process using the minimum lubrication methodology. The paper presents and summarizes the experimental results of using a number of solid lubricants, gives practical recommendations and defines the tasks of further research. Work in this direction is focused on reducing the use of water in servicing industrial needs, which is an urgent global environmental challenge to the development of civilization and meets the modern technocratic strategies of the European Union (Industry 4.0), Japan (Society 5.0), China (Made in China 2025) and other leading world economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economy has progressed from a rapid growth phase to one of high-quality development and innovation. Industry 4.0 manufacturing technology and processes include cyber-physical systems (CPS), Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT), Cognitive Computing and Artificial Intelligence (CCAI) as advancements in computerization and information exchange the relevant variables data, and a survey questionnaire are used to accumulate three-year data from 2017 to 2019. The Structured Equation Modeling (SEM), analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and mediating variable in a SOBEL test are applied. The results show that Industry 4.0 is the primary practical corridor to official and familiar in sequence substitute policy and collaboration for talent agglomeration on research projects. It lowers the fixed price of human capital and significant factors active long-term innovation and profit at the end of the inferential test results. Hypotheses findings show that the associations between dependent and independent variables are essential, and latent variables GFI, CFI, TLI, and IFI have acceptable values. CMINDF and RMR fulfill the fit criteria and results will assist managers and policymakers in spotting talent agglomeration activities implemented to increase manufacturing businesses' readiness to reap the most benefits from Industry 4.0 adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A data-driven cleaner production strategy is proposed for energy-intensive industries. • The data-driven strategy is explained by the cleaner production data lifecycle. • The implementation models are developed to illustrate the proposed strategy. • The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is discussed for companies in China. Cleaner production is an effective strategy for improving material utilization, reducing energy consumption, maximizing product output, and minimizing emissions during the entire manufacturing processes. An increasing number of enterprises promote the implementation of cleaner production. In the Industry 4.0 context, product-embedded information devices are widely used to capture product lifecycle data. Product lifecycle management provides an opportunity to achieve cleaner production strategy. This paper presents a data-driven cleaner production strategy by product lifecycle management for energy-intensive manufacturing industries. The data-driven strategy is proposed and explained by the lifecycle of cleaner production data. Implementation models are developed to illustrate the proposed data-driven cleaner production strategy. Furthermore, two case studies from Southern and Northern China are presented to demonstrate the strategy. Results show that the unit energy consumption and the energy cost of production in Company A are reduced by at least 3% after applying the proposed strategy. In addition, the "cradle-to-gate" lifecycle data analysis indicates that the costs of environmental pollution in Company B are diminished significantly. Finally, energy-intensive manufacturing companies in China are compared and evaluated, and the effectiveness of the proposed strategy is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 outbreak has led to a substantial loss of human life throughout the world and has a tremendous impact on healthcare services. Industry 4.0 technologies have established effective supply chain management towards the fulfillment of customized demands in the healthcare field. In addition, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and 3D printing have been extensively used to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and assist in providing value-added services in the healthcare sector. Henceforth, this paper presents a scientometric analysis on the literature of aforementioned Industry 4.0 technologies in the context of COVID-19. It provides extensive insights into co-citation and co-occurrence analysis of high cited publications, participating countries, influential authors, prolific journals, and keywords using the CiteSpace tool. The analyses reveal that China has produced the highest research outputs, although India is the most collaborative country in this field. The current research hotspots include supply chain, 4D printing, and social distancing technologies. Furthermore, it explores emerging trends, intellectual structure of publications, research frontiers, and potential research directions for further work in the Industry 4.0 assisted healthcare domain. [Display omitted] • Industry 4.0 technologies have emerged in the healthcare domain as an area of growing interest in academia and industry discipline. • Artificial intelligence, big data analytics, internet of things and 3D printing have been extensively used to control the COVID-19 spread and assist in providing value-added services in the healthcare sector. • It explores emerging trends, intellectual structure of publications, and potential research directions for further work in the Industry 4.0 assisted healthcare domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the concept of lifelong education continues to infiltrate the education system, the examination of degree programs for junior college graduates has become a promotion path for graduates of higher vocational colleges to continue their education. It optimizes the development space for graduates of higher vocational colleges. While the enrollment of junior college graduates for degree programs is expanding, the education system of degree programs for junior college graduates and higher vocational colleges in China has also ushered in a new round of challenges and development opportunities. At present, the education system for degree programs for junior college graduates is not sound enough, and the interface with higher vocational colleges is not close enough. Moreover, there are problems such as poor communication of students moving from higher vocational colleges to universities for undergraduate education and fluctuating quality of personnel training and education. Therefore, it is of significance to study the problems of major offerings in higher vocational colleges. In our study, we took higher vocational colleges in Xiamen as an example. And we systematically study and then analyze the universities offering degree programs for junior college graduates and their majors. Finally, the problems in the connection between the majors of higher vocational colleges and those of universities with degree programs for junior college graduates are discussed, and suggestions are given for the study. Moreover, the universities should respond to the real-time development policy of the country and cultivate interdisciplinary personnel with solid theoretical foundation, innovation skills, research capabilities, professional expertise, and practical skills for social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to empirically examine the effect of supply chain innovation (SCI) announcements on shareholder value within the context of Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses an event study method to examine the effect of SCI announcements on shareholder value of the 156 listed companies in China. Findings: First, SCI announcements have a positive effect on shareholder value. Second, SCI with an integrated form more positively affects shareholder value than SCI with an independent form. SCI at the strategy level more positively affects shareholder value than SCI at the operation level. Technology-type SCI more positively affects shareholder value than process-type SCI. Third, this study finds that investors pay more attention to the SCI of companies in the service industry than that of in the manufacturing industry. Finally, the post-hoc analysis finds that digital SCI more positively affects shareholder value than intelligent SCI. Originality/value: First, most scholars use questionnaire data rather than second-hand data to conduct empirical research to explore the impact of SCI on performance. Second, although scholars focus on performance comprehensively, including operational, financial, relational and environmental performance, no scholars use an event study to explore the impact of SCI on the stock market. Third, no scholars have explored the differential impact of SCI in different industries. Forth, few scholars have classified SCI according to the characteristics to explore the differential impact of SCI. Finally, the differences between SCI of Industry 4.0 and SCI of Industry 5.0 have been described, but no scholars have used empirical research to explore the differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As countries around the world pay more and more attention to the sustainable development of the construction industry, the prefabricated building model has become the best construction type to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction. However, the prefabricated building entails higher technical requirements, and the workers involved in the construction must be trained to reduce the risks. For China, where the demographic dividend is gradually disappearing, how to quickly promote the industrializing workers process has become an urgent issue. This research focuses on the training and management of industrializing workers in prefabricated building. First, the facial images of the participants were collected from the actual test data, and the changes of participants' facial expressions were analyzed through multitask convolutional neural network-Lighten Facial Expression Recognition (MTCNN-LFER). The results of the analysis were plugged into the facial expression recognition and evaluation model for industrializing workers training in this research to calculate the weights, and then all the weights were clustered through the improved SWEM-SAM method. The results show the following: (1) the values of objective data were used to judge the participating workers' mastery of each knowledge and to evaluate whether they are qualified. (2) The evaluation results were used to analyze the risk events that may be caused by participating workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pattern and scale of commerce worldwide have been greatly transformed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and technological advancement; digital trade has become the primary form of trade in the digital economy. On the basis of information network infrastructure, information technology level, digital industrialization level, and industrial digitalization level, this study establishes a comprehensive assessment system that applies an entropy–TOPSIS model to evaluate digital trade development level in China. The results indicate that digital trade in China was steadily growing between 2010 and 2019. A principal component analysis is conducted to identify factors affecting the digital trade development level in China. The analysis results suggest that Internet development, population income, industrial structure, payment convenience level, fixed asset investment, online transaction scale, and economic development all have positive effects on the digital trade development level in China, with payment convenience level having the greatest influence. By contrast, state intervention and degree of dependence on foreign trade have a negative effect on digital trade development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Industry 4.0 concept proposes that new cutting-edge technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), will grow. The acceptance of IoT in the circular economy (CE) is still in its infancy, despite its enormous potential. In the face of growing environmental affairs, IoT based Industry 4.0 technologies are altering CE practices and existing business models, according to the World Economic Forum. This research investigates the function of IoT-based Industry 4.0 in circular CE practices, as well as their impact on economic and environmental performance, which in turn influences overall organizational performance. China-based enterprises provide information for the study, which includes data from 300 companies. Utilizing a structural equation modeling framework known as partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The major findings are presented in the study: (I) the IoT significantly improves the activities of the CE; (II) the IoT significantly improves the practices of the CE; and (III) the IoT meaningfully advances the practices of CE (green manufacturing, circular design, remanufacturing, and recycling). Moreover, the findings shows that environmentally friendly business practices help enhance environmental performance of firm, while also stimulating their economic performance; and improved environmental performance has a significant positive influence on firm performance. This research lays the groundwork for contributing nations/companies to attain economic and long-term sustainability goals at the same time by incorporating IoT-based Industry 4.0 technology into CE practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology has played a vital role in modifying the lifestyle of individuals and the emerging countries are progressing so fast as no one has ever thought before. With the progression of technology boosting, the pattern of energy resources consumption has also been the center of attention for researchers in this decade. China has been one of those countries that have adopted such energy strategies in its industrial regime. The economists and information technology (IT) working together have done wonders in digitalizing and sustaining the economies that will lead to sustainable development goals. This study has been an effort to understand the role of technology and the availability of affordable energy resources in obtaining a sustainable digital economy with the mediating role of sustainable development. The population of this study was IT professionals and economists. The survey data were collected from 285 respondents selected based on purposive sampling. The software adopted for data analysis was SmartPLS 3.3.3. This study showed that technology utilization had been an important predictor of sustainable development, contributing to a sustainable digital economy. Similarly, low operational cost also moderated the relationship of sustainable development and sustainable digital economy that has been the major focus of developing countries. Moreover, the strategy of cutting down the operation costs to bring it down to the level of affordability is a major challenge for the economies such as China that have been among the low production cost. Studies on the sustainable digital economy with respect to technological use are very limited. Hence, this study will find many advantages for economists and IT professionals in the future with respect to devising the strategies taking into account the sustainable development goals and the achievement of a sustainable digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a new generation of information technology has provided sufficient technical support for the smart manufacturing industry. In order to promote the upgrading of China's pharmaceutical smart manufacturing industry, the direction of industrial upgrading and transformation will be discussed from the perspective of technological innovation. According to the input and output data of technological innovation in China's pharmaceutical manufacturing industry from 2007 to 2019, the DEA method is used to analyze the allocation of innovative resources in China's pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in recent years. The study found that the efficiency of technological innovation in China's pharmaceutical manufacturing industry fluctuated greatly from 2007 to 2019, with a low overall level and varying degrees of wasted resources. On this basis, an in-depth analysis of the system architecture of the pharmaceutical smart manufacturing industry under the Industry 4.0 environment was performed. Finally, four paths for the digital transformation of China's pharmaceutical manufacturing industry are proposed. Chinese pharmaceutical manufacturing companies need to use new technologies to carry out comprehensive intelligent upgrading and digital transformation to improve innovation efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 with its fusion of technologies has brought an unprecedented growth in all sectors. In this paper, we first present the several pillars of Industry 4.0 which have contributed to the advancement of this field. Then, we perform a bibliometric profile of the Industry 4.0 publications in Web of Science by analyzing the publications and citation structure, most referenced publications, most productive and influential authors, organizations and countries. Further, an extensive analysis of the key words is presented along with the citation bursts of top keywords. Various visualizations tools have been to used show relationships between different bibliometric profiles. The individual growth of different research areas over the year is also presented. The results show promising growth of Industry 4.0 as a research area, various collaborative groups have been identified which are working extensively in the growth of the domain, spearheaded by China, however, considerable contribution of developing countries is also there. An abstract analysis is done using K-means clustering and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to identify key research themes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is the largest exporter of toys. Small- and medium-sized toy factories usually face various challenges when they deal with quality aspects and toy safety requirements. After a literature review and pilot study, a conceptual framework to improve factories' capabilities in dealing with European and US toy safety requirements through Toy safety assessment, Cost and resources optimization, Industry 4.0, ISO 19600:2014 (which has become ISO 37301:2021), and Web-based product compliance platforms, is proposed. In mid-2020, a questionnaire was designed, and an internet questionnaire survey empirical study was conducted. The statistical results from 107 responses suggested that Toy Safety Assessment, ISO 19600:2014 (ISO 37301), and Industry 4.0 have made positive and significant contributions to factories' capability to respond to European and US toy safety requirements. The study identifies and prioritizes the factors to improve toy factories' capabilities in dealing with European and US requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the swift growth of China's sports programs, the sports audience in China vary markedly in terms of social class and urban types. Thus, understanding the audience characteristics of Chinese sports programs is of utmost socioeconomic significance for the development of sports programs. This study aims to investigate the population of different social capital and regions through the Internet and uses an ologist to perform regression analysis. People with different social capital exhibited significant differences in the love of sports programs, with significant social divisions. In addition, the differences in the groups' love for sports programs in different regions were significant, suggesting field differences among the audiences of Chinese sports programs. Besides, we found that although sports programs are a type of public social resources, the Chinese audience's preference for sports programs is affected by social capital and regional differences. In general, this study is helpful for the government and the media to formulate targeted sports planning policies, further promoting the development of sports and promoting the improvement of business model under industry 4.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of Industry 4.0, corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays an increasingly important role in firm risk management. To mitigate risk and improve operational productivity, artificial intelligence (AI), a key disruptive technology, has been increasingly employed in many industries. In this study, we examine the relationship between CSR and idiosyncratic risk (IR) as moderated by AI innovation and operational efficiency based on data from 1614 firms in China during the period from 2010 to 2017. The empirical results show that CSR can negatively affect IR, while beyond a certain level, it acts in the opposite direction, exhibiting a U‐shaped relationship. In particular, operational efficiency shifts the turning point of the U‐shaped curve to the right, implying that firms with high operational efficiency can obtain a higher optimal benefit by improving their CSR. Furthermore, AI innovation flattens the U‐shaped curve, thereby weakening CSR's positive impact on IR. This result indicates that AI innovation is not always beneficial. As AI innovation can have some substitution effect on CSR, enterprises should focus on either CSR or AI innovation as their main differentiation strategy to maximize the utilization of resources. We further instrument CSR using the social expenditure ratio of the province where the firm is headquartered to address a potential endogeneity concern. Finally, we provide several prominent managerial implications for enterprises, governments, and investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's Industry 4.0 plan, also known as "Made-in-China 2025″, emphasizes the development of circular economy (CE) to improve the efficiency of resource recycling. The main goal of a CE is to minimize resource input, maximize economic output, and lessen the influence on the natural environment. To achieve the goal of developing CE in the context of Industry 4.0, China's government has issued a series of supporting policies. This paper proposes a closed-loop network data envelopment analysis model to appraise and investigate the performance of China's regional industrial CE systems and provide suggestions for improving industrial CE performance in China. The proposed model takes the recycling of resources in the system into account. Then, the proposed model is employed to analyze the performance of industrial CE systems at the province-level in China. The evidence has reached some key findings. First, the performance of China's industrial CE systems did not change much during the period from 2013 to 2017, but the average efficiency was low. Second, the production efficiency (PE) of each province's industrial CE system was higher than the pollution treatment efficiency (PTE). Third, the development trends of the average PE and average PTE of industrial CE systems are the same, first showing a decrease and then an increase. Fourth, only 10 out of 29 industrial CE systems performed well during the study period; the remaining CE systems need to improve in terms of production efficiency or pollution control efficiency, or both. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the mediation channels through which the financial performance of intelligent manufacturing industries closely related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution has been affected. Along with compiling a massive volume of datasets publicized by the Chinese government and other authoritative institutions, a survey of the 317 listed enterprises of the intelligent manufacturing industries in China has been established for statistical analysis. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), this research tests six hypotheses and confirms the inter-factor impact relationship between exogenous and endogenous factors. We find that innovation efforts mainly led by increasing investment in Research & Development (R&D), along with high liquidity, surely lead to good financial performance, whereas innovation efforts alone do not. Government support policy has been found to be closely related not only to higher liquidity, but to good financial performance through the common channel of R&D investment. Regional innovation capability has been revealed to be related to R&D investments, and, furthermore, to liquidity, which shows that the regional innovation system in China has been functioning relatively well to induce enterprises to increase investments and secure higher liquidity, and finally contribute to achieving better business performance. However, regional economic development shows no relationship with R&D investments, and consequently neither with liquidity nor with performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The computer information service industry is closely related to the fourth industrial revolution and stands at the core of the global value chain. It has become an essential engine for developing industries in various countries, and its scale is constantly expanding. In the critical period of global economic transformation and development, the use of mathematical models to predict its international competitiveness will help scientifically evaluate the development level of the industry and accelerate the adaptation to the needs of the fourth industrial revolution. In this article, a prediction model is proposed for the international competitiveness of the computer information service industry. First, we used the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index to measure the international competitiveness of the computer information service industry. Furthermore, based on the characteristics of the industry and high-quality development theory, we constructed the evaluation indicator system of influencing factors and used the grey relational analysis method to screen key indicators. Then, we combined the Grey model and BP neural network algorithm to construct the GM-BP prediction model. Finally, China is used as an example to predict the international competitiveness of its computer information service industry, and suggestions are made for industrial development. The results show that the grey relational analysis method can genuinely reflect the impact of different aspects on the international competitiveness of China's computer information service industry and better determine the key indicators of influencing factors. The GM-BP model has minor errors and excellent simulation results and can accurately predict the future status of international competitiveness. The applicability and reliability of the model are reasonable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]