Among emerging technologies large attention has been devoted to the so called Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0, which is also a case study of a major industrial policy initiative, led by Germany. In the field of methodologies to profile and monitor emerging technologies the role of Wikipedia has been recently explored. In this paper we extend the use of Wikipedia by comparing the German edition with the world largest edition (in English) in order to examine whether there are significant structural differences. We first validate the use of Wikipedia for emerging technologies and for cross-language comparisons as a tool for (almost) real time strategic analysis. We then extract all Wikipedia pages related to Industry 4.0, build up a knowledge network and study its topological properties in the two editions. We find striking differences, which can be explained with respect to the persistence of the industrial pattern of specialization of Germany with respect to all other countries. Emerging technologies introduce novelty but also preserve path-dependency in the pattern of specialization. The implications for companies and policy makers are discussed.
Emerging technologies and industrial leadership. A Wikipedia-based strategic analysis of Industry 4.0
Bonaccorsi A.
;Chiarello F.;Fantoni G.;
2020-01-01
Abstract
Among emerging technologies large attention has been devoted to the so called Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0, which is also a case study of a major industrial policy initiative, led by Germany. In the field of methodologies to profile and monitor emerging technologies the role of Wikipedia has been recently explored. In this paper we extend the use of Wikipedia by comparing the German edition with the world largest edition (in English) in order to examine whether there are significant structural differences. We first validate the use of Wikipedia for emerging technologies and for cross-language comparisons as a tool for (almost) real time strategic analysis. We then extract all Wikipedia pages related to Industry 4.0, build up a knowledge network and study its topological properties in the two editions. We find striking differences, which can be explained with respect to the persistence of the industrial pattern of specialization of Germany with respect to all other countries. Emerging technologies introduce novelty but also preserve path-dependency in the pattern of specialization. The implications for companies and policy makers are discussed.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
