The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Networks, Ecosystems, and Swarms

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a foundational shift in the way people live, work, and relate to one another; a novel wave of advanced technologies; an ‘epi digital’ phenomenon with technological transformation at its heart; where connected technology enables and manages the lives of individuals and the organisations in which they work. It will involve shifts in power, shifts in wealth, and shifts in knowledge. Its revolutionary status is determined by massive technological developments, including artificial intelligence and robotics, ubiquitous linked sensors (internet of things), virtual and augmented realities, 3D printing, blockchain and distributed ledger technology, advanced materials, energy capture, storage and transmission, new computing technologies, biotechnologies, geoengineering, neurotechnology, space technologies, Big Data, and machine learning. From out of this super dynamic environment, new business models are providing opportunities and challenges to organisational design and development, structure and process. This chapter will provide a narrative of how organisations have already responded to these dramatic changes and indications as to how they might develop in future.