Technologijos ekonomikos, aplinkos ir socialiniams pokyčiams (GRAB008)

Industry 4.0 Technological Enablers drive innovation in solutions and services and restructure the economic and business models and market dynamics. The accelerating pace of Digital Transformation and the upcoming Digital Economy drive and at the same time are driven by the mass integration of Industry 4.0 Enabling Technologies in the backend, core, and front-end of industries, businesses, and markets. Such innovations fundamentally drive the transition to the Digitally Empowered Circular Economy and help us achieve SDGs and Sustainable Competitiveness more efficiently.

This course sheds light on the evolving dynamics of the markets and economies resulting from the transition to the Digital Economy and the urgency to accelerate the transition to the Circular Economy by harvesting the already established digital enablers. The increasing awareness and attention to the imperative of the transition to the Circular Economy coincide with the ongoing transition to the Digital Economy, providing groundbreaking multi-dimensional innovation opportunities in industrial, economic, and business models. By propelling innovation in processes, business models, products, services, industries, markets, and economies, Combinatorial Innovations, and Convergence of Technologies reshape the fabric of the economy and create waves of disruptive and enabling forces across all sectors. They give rise to Emergence, Divergence, and Convergence of technologies, enable Economic, Industrial, and Business Model Innovation. These trends drive and are driven by Digital Transformation and the Digital Economy, and provide groundbreaking solutions to tackle SDGs, promote Sustainable Competitiveness, and enable the transition to the Circular Economy.

This course starts with a brief overview of the exacerbating social, economic, and environmental challenges as the consequences of technologically empowered Industrialization under the Linear Economic Model and our unsustainable sourcing, production, and consumption patterns. Following this introduction, The Circular Economy Alternative is introduced and explored as a prominent means for designing and implementing innovative solutions in response to the threatening aftermath of our unsustainable practices. Following an introduction on the above, this course dives deeper into how technologies integrate into industries and create new technologically empowered industries, such as FinTech, AgriTech, HealthTech, MedTech, InsurTech, EdTech, SpaceTech, and many other xTech industries. These new industries open new markets and enable opportunities for innovation as they operate across sectors and interconnect several industries. Convergence of technologies such as Cloud, Big Data, AI, Analytics, Blockchain, Extended Reality, Digital Twins with Business Model Innovation create technologically empowered business models such as Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, Solution as a Service, Analytics as a Service, Blockchain as a Service, AI as a Service, Light as a Service, Virtualization as a Service, Cybersecurity as a Service, IoT as a Service, and many more XaaS Business Models, a.k.a. Everything as a Service, that is explored in this course. xTech and XaaS are among major digitally empowered industries and business models that promote SDGs, Sustainable Competitiveness, and Circular Economy.

• To understand and apply Digital Transformation and the concept of the forthcoming Digital Economy;
• To evaluate how Convergence of Technologies and Combinatorial Innovations restructure the fabric of economy and restructure industries and markets;
• To understand and analyse the negative social, economic, and environmental impacts of Industrial Revolutions and the Repercussions of the Linear Economic Model;
• To be able to assess and integrate knowledge about Sustainable Competitiveness, ESG, SDGs, and Circular Economy;
• To analyse the role of Technology in Impact-Driven Business Model Innovation: Everything as a Service (XaaS);
• To be able to apply Technology in Impact-Driven Industrial Innovation (xTech);
• To evaluate the impact of Digital Enablers of I4.0 in promoting Sustainable Competitiveness, SDGs, and Circular Economy;
• To be able to integrate Symbiotic Sustainability Models, Industrial Symbiosis, and NGO-Corporate Alliances;
• To analyze and apply cases and industry examples in explaining the role of strategic technology management for social, economic, and environmental prosperity.