Technological Capabilities Required to Enable Organizations for Digital Platforms Businesses in the Era of 4 IR and 5IR

The purpose of this study was to investigate the capabilities required to equip traditional and potential platform businesses for digital transformation and success in digital platform business initiatives in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and Fifth Industrial Revolution (5IR) era in a South African context. A conceptual model was proposed comprising of five components, including 4IR systems, 5IR systems, digital platforms, enabling technological capabilities and impeding technological capabilities. The model was tested using data collected, in an online survey questionnaire, from 25 participants within a South African technology organization that has implemented digital platform initiatives. The results have shown that critical technological capabilities for the 4IR and 5IR era included Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, cloud computing, data-driven decision-making, technical expertise, and project management. Core enabling capabilities for digital platform business initiatives to succeed, included technical expertise, data analytics, system understanding, change management, organizational culture, and leadership. Impeding factors that could negatively impact the success of digital platform business initiatives include change resistance, lack of skills, budget constraints, lack of cybersecurity measures, and integration challenges. These barriers can delay market entry, reduce competitiveness, and increase security vulnerabilities. Conversely, enabling technological capabilities enhances organizational efficiency, flexibility, and customer centricity, leading to successful digital transformations. A limitation of this study is the small number of respondents who participated in the research questionnaire.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation

• Publication date

  2025-06-16

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1109/ICE/ITMC65658.2025.11106667
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Naturalistic Inquiry

  2022influential reference
• Industry 4.0 vs. Industry 5.0: Co-existence, Transition, or a Hybrid

  2022influential reference
• Towards a firm-level technological capability framework to endorse and actualize the Fourth Industrial Revolution in developing countries

  2022cited by this paper
• Fifth Industrial Revolution

  2022cited by this paper
• The Fifth Industrial Revolution: How harmonious human–machine collaboration is triggering a retail and service [r]evolution

  2022influential reference
• A Critical Historical and Scientific Overview of all Industrial Revolutions

  2021influential reference
• Transformation of Business Technologies into Digital Platforms and Evaluation of the Effectiveness of their Application

  2021cited by this paper
• Rethinking engineering education at the age of industry 5.0

  2021cited by this paper
• A Review of 4IR/5IR Enabling Technologies and Their Linkage to Manufacturing Supply Chain

  2021cited by this paper
• Properties and Examples of the Digital Platforms

  2021cited by this paper
• THE MAJOR CHALLENGES FACING ORGANISATIONS TO CREATE TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED VALUE IN THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: A DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES PERSPECTIVE IN SOUTH AFRICA

  2020influential reference
• Drilling in the Fourth Industrial Revolution—Vision and Challenges

  2020cited by this paper
• Skills, competencies and literacies attributed to 4IR/Industry 4.0: Scoping review

  2020influential reference
• Digital transformation of business model innovation: A structured literature review

  2019cited by this paper
• Smart Appliances and RAMI 4.0: Management and Servitization of Ice Cream Machines

  2019cited by this paper
• Building a Digital Business Technology Platform in the Industry 4.0 Era

  2019cited by this paper
• Will we work in twenty-first century capitalism? A critique of the fourth industrial revolution literature

  2019cited by this paper
• Digital platform ecosystems

  2019influential reference
• DIGITAL PLATFORM: A NEW ECONOMIC INSTITUTION

  2018cited by this paper
• The digital platform: a research agenda

  2018influential reference
• International Competitiveness and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

  2017cited by this paper
• Industry 4.0 and Its Impact on the Functioning of Supply Chains

  2017cited by this paper
• The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future

  2016influential reference
• Three stage maturity model in SME’s toward industry 4.0

  2016cited by this paper
• Multi-Sided Platforms

  2015cited by this paper
• The Technology Strategy

  2006cited by this paper
• Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, 2d ed

  2005cited by this paper
• Strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects

  2004cited by this paper
• Verification Strategies for Establishing Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research

  2002cited by this paper
• Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data

  1996cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.