Fusions of industrialisation and digitalisation (FID) in the digital economy: Industrial system digitalisation, digital technology industrialisation, and beyond

Abstract

This paper starts with exploring the nature of industrialisation, combined with the current hot research topic in the field of technology - digitization, and it seeks to reveal the fusion process of industrialisation and digitization. The paper summarizes the authors' long-term research results on industrialisation and its industrial system into three main aspects: first, although the industrial system presents a variety of complexities, its essence can be defined as an input-output value creation system; second, industrialisation can be regarded as a process of the iterative evolution of industrial system design-construction, operation-delivery, and continuous improvement at the meso and micro levels; third, in the face of an increasingly unstable business environment, understanding the industrial systems and their ecosystems, as well as their interactive mechanisms, has become a major research topic that is urgently needed by current managers. On this basis, the paper discusses the fusion of industrialisation and digitalisation built upon two recent case observations, and suggests that industrial-digital fusion can be divided into three processes and one new transmuted outcome. From the process perspective, firstly, the fusion, entitled with the digitization of the industrial system, actually can significantly and effectively improve competitive attributes by adopting digital technologies in existing industrial systems, especially in its weak links. Secondly, the fusion, named as the industrialisation of digital technology, can thrust a new service model to create a new industry that is based on successful digital applications. And thirdly, with the further integration of the above two processes, the fusion can establish a reciprocal and iterative process between the above two processes and eventually achieve self-evolutions, effectively and healthily. From the transmutation outcome perspective, the fusion can be also recognised as a set of interactive mechanisms and principles within the metaverse and between the virtual-real worlds. At the end of the paper, some possible research directions are put forward.