Industry 4.0 Technologies in the Service Sector: A Systematic Literature Review
| Páginas | 114-129 |
| Fecha | 28 Diciembre 2025 |
| Fecha de publicación | 28 Diciembre 2025 |
| Autor | Yoke Pribadi Kornarius, Arne Vanderstukken, Agus Gunawan, Jol Stoffers |
| Materia | Derecho de las Nuevas Tecnologías |
J. Technol. Manag. Innov. 2025. Volume 20, Issue 4
114
ISSN: 0718-2724 - Journal of Technology Management & Innovation - www.jotmi.org
is journal and its contents are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Industry 4.0 Technologies in e Service Sector: A Systematic Literature Review
Yoke Pribadi Kornarius* 1,2 , Arne Vanderstukken1 , Agus Gunawan2, Jol Stoers 1,3,4
Abstract
Purpose – is study systematically reviews the literature on Industry 4.0 technology (I4T) adoption within the service sector—including Big Data
analytics, Articial Intelligence, and Robotics—to identify critical adoption trends, benets, and challenges. Given the unique intangibility and
heterogeneity of services, the research aims to outline a sector-specic roadmap for technological integration.
Design/methodology/approach – Following a dual-method approach, the study rst employs bibliometric analysis to map the intellectual lands-
cape of Industry 4.0 in services. is is followed by a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of 49 empirical studies published between 2013 and 2023,
indexed in major databases such as Scopus and Web of Science.
Findings – e analysis reveals a distinct phased adoption model in which “Base Technologies” (e.g., Cloud Computing and Big Data) serve as
a prerequisite infrastructure for “Front-end Technologies” (e.g., Robotics and AI). While I4T signicantly enhances operational and nancial
performance, its success is heavily moderated by human-centered factors. ese include customer psychological acceptance of automated inte-
ractions, and employee digital literacy. e results suggest that service-sector adoption is less about technical capability and more about balancing
technological readiness with human-centric integration.
Originality/value – is study extends established frameworks, specically the Diusion of Innovation (DOI) and the Technology-Organization-
Environment (TOE) model, by integrating a human-centric dimension essential for service environments. It provides a theoretical perspective on
the socio-technical barriers to digital transformation and highlights how the documented phased progression in literature reects the maturation
and increasing commercial availability of front-end technologies.
Keywords: Industry 4.0; service sector; technology adoption; human-centered; systematic literature review
(1) Faculty of Management, Open Universiteit of the Netherlands, Heerlen, Netherlands.
(2) Center for Business Studies, Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung, Indonesia.
(3) Research Centre for Employability, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Sittard, Netherlands.
(4) Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA), Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands.
*Corresponding author: yoke.pribadikornarius@ou.nl
Submitted: September 4, 2025 / December 19, 2025
1. Introduction
Industry 4.0 transformed manufacturing through increased auto-
mation and data-driven processes (Ghobakhloo et al., 2024), but the
potential for Industry 4.0 Technologies (I4T) to reshape the service
industry remains underdeveloped (Imran et al., 2018), despite enhan-
ced eciency and customer experience personalization (Alva & Ca-
ceres, 2025; Gupta and Jauhar, 2023). I4T innovations such as Internet
of ings (IoT), articial intelligence (AI), and robotics oer service
organizations the ability to drive business model transformations and
improve overall performance (Afandy et al., 2022; Ślusarczyk et al.,
2020). Nevertheless, service sector characteristics—primarily intan-
gible output and reliance on human-centric information—pose cha-
llenges that require specialized strategies for I4T adoption (Chung
and Kim, 2024).
Reviews identify several technological advancements that shape I4T
adoption in service industries (Belk et al., 2023; Moldabekova et al.,
2020; Rahman & Akhtar, 2025), but limited research examines the
interplay between technological potential and sector-specic cha-
llenges (Mariani and Borghi, 2019), such as the need for signicant
organizational resources, strategic alignment, and adaptive capabilities
tailored to services. e extent of I4T’s inuences on services has yet
to be explored fully. Barriers such as high initial costs, skill shortages,
and varying degrees of employee and customer receptivity (Aceto
et al., 2020; Matana et al., 2020; Osei et al., 2020) further compli-
cate adoption. A nuanced, comprehensive review is thus needed to
synthesize these barriers, anticipated outcomes, and adoption trends
in this context.
A systematic literature review (SLR) provides insights into the trends,
organizational outcomes, and barriers specic to services. Unlike
extant reviews that identify emerging technologies and broad indus-
try challenges, this SLR provides a sector-specic synthesis, drawing
connections among organizational needs, resource dependencies,
and adoption outcomes. We clarify the challenges service organiza-
tions experience and examine how sectoral characteristics inuence
I4T adoption, addressing three research questions:
RQ1: What trends aect I4T adoption in service industries?
RQ2: What outcomes are monitored to assess I4T adoption
eectiveness in service industries?
RQ3: What barriers do organizations encounter during I4T
adoption in service industries?
J. Technol. Manag. Innov. 2025. Volume 20, Issue 4
115
ISSN: 0718-2724 - Journal of Technology Management & Innovation - www.jotmi.org
is journal and its contents are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0)
2. Literature Review
Industry 4.0 builds on industrial revolution advancements to support
or replace humans during decision-making (Xu et al., 2018). Seve-
ral I4T facilitate real-time collection and the exchange, analysis, and
use of data (Haldorai, 2023). Such data improve customer service,
optimize operations, develop new products, and help with decisions
(Ziora, 2015). IoT connects a network of physical objects (Rahman
et al., 2022), AI allows machines to mimic human intelligence (Is-
lam and Naseem, 2023), and ML is trained on data to make predic-
tions (Sharma et al., 2021). BDA extracts insights from large datasets
using advanced statistical and ML (Filgueiras, de Melo, et al., 2024),
and cloud computing delivers computing services over the internet
to provide on-demand computing resources (Chen et al., 2022). CPS
integrates physical devices with both hardware and soware to crea-
te systems that are more responsive to sense, control, and interact
with the physical world (Abdullah et al., 2024), and robotics perform
tasks automatically by following instruction sets (Mott et al., 2018).
Frank et al. (2019) classify I4T into two groups—base technologies,
comprising cloud computing, IoT, and BDA, and front-end technolo-
gies, comprising AI and robotics.
is study explores the intersection of Industry 4.0 and services, in-
cluding implications to service provision, organizational structures,
and human engagement. Services comprise a substantial portion of
modern economies (Mariani and Borghi, 2019), but as intangibles,
they rely on customer interactions, personalization, and experiential
value (Bettencourt and Gwinner, 1996). As I4T adoption accelerates
across services, it is crucial to recognize that this transformation ex-
tends beyond implementation of digital tools. e combination of
CPS and data-driven decision-making redenes how services are con-
ceptualized, designed, and delivered (Feng et al., 2020; Hamzah et al.,
2023). For example, IoT and interconnected systems allow creation
of smart service ecosystems (Rejeb et al., 2022), and service provi-
ders are increasingly using data analytics and ML, combined with AI,
to personalize oerings, predict customer preferences, and optimize
resource allocation (Haleem et al., 2022). e convergence of new te-
chnologies in services suggests bridging the physical and the digital,
fostering a new era of interconnectedness and intelligence (Hofmann
et al., 2019). Data privacy and security are paramount because organi-
zations process vast amounts of customer information (Dilyard et al.,
2021; Lafuente, 2015). e shi toward automation raises questions
about the future of human workers in service roles and the need for
upskilling and reskilling (Zirar et al., 2023), with some perspectives
suggesting that human workers can collaborate symbiotically with
technological advancements (Jarrahi, 2018). Integration of digital
technologies leads to disruptions in traditional value chains, requiring
service providers to adapt to remain competitive (Büyüközkan and
Göçer, 2018), though disruptions also create opportunities (Müller
et al., 2018). e inuences of these disruptions on employee outco-
mes (e.g., job satisfaction, work-life balance, and career development)
represent a critical area of inquiry. We use bibliometric analysis to
assess and map trends quantitatively, oering an overview of extant
research, including gaps.
3. Preliminary Study: Bibliometric Analysis
Bibliometric analysis provided a systematic and objective approach
to analyzing extant literature on Industry 4.0 and the service sector.
By searching databases, we identify potential topics for further explo-
ration. Bibliometric analysis consists of three steps—data collection,
network visualization, and interpretation and analysis—which allow
identication of themes, trends, and potential research directions.
We searched Scopus using search terms INDUSTRY 4.0, FOURTH
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, I4.0, 4TH INDUSTRIAL REVOLU-
TION, SERVICE SECTOR*, SERVICE INDUSTR*, and SERVICE
FIRM*, which yielded 575 papers. We processed this list using VOS
Viewer soware to generate a diagram (Figure 1) to identify themes.
By analyzing cooccurrence patterns and semantic relationships bet-
ween terms, we highlighted three clusters of keywords that collecti-
vely base the discussions on Industry 4.0 and the service sector—In-
dustry 4.0 (blue), Study (red), and Practice (green).
e “Innovation & Digital Tech in Services” (red cluster) contains
keywords such as “articial intelligence, innovation, digital techno-
logies, sustainability,” and “fourth industrial revolution,” implying
a focus on digital transformation and the adoption of Industry 4.0
within service industries. e green cluster or Technical Integra-
tion and Systems, emphasizes literature on technical infrastructure,
architecture, and systems enabling I4.0, comprising terms such as
“embedded systems, cyber physical systems, interoperability, service
oriented architecture”. e Reviews & Evaluation (blue cluster) focu-
ses on a body of work doing meta-analysis or bibliometric review of
I4.0 in services, represented by terms “systematic literature review,
sustainable development, competition”. Keywords within the yellow
cluster, Manufacturing-Service Nexus, such as “manufacturing indus-
tries, products and services, 3d printers, cloud manufacturing,” point
towards a focus on the convergence of manufacturing and services,
oen referred to as servitization. e cyan cluster, Emerging Tech &
Networks, highlights emerging technologies being investigated for
future service applications. is cluster includes terms like “5g, bloc-
kchain, smart city, augmented reality, machine learning.”
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