Evolving from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0: Evaluating the conceptual structure and prospects of an emerging field

Abstract

Abstract The world is experiencing unprecedented transformation brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, and the pandemic caused by COVID-19. Industry 4.0 seeks to transcend from the physical production processes to the digital environment, strengthening the link between the production agents. However, the pandemic evidenced the need to transform the industry and how it fosters global development. The Fifth Industrial Revolution or Industry 5.0 arises at this point and it sets a new paradigm of development and seeks to foster an industrial activity transcending the technical or economic goals, such as productivity and efficiency. Industry 5.0 fosters essential purposes for the future, which its predecessor did not state clearly. Nevertheless, as it is a new concept based on another relatively new, it is complicated to identify the components distinguishing it and boosting its development, as well as the most relevant agents in its consolidation. In this sense, by using bibliometric techniques and tools, this piece of research analyzes the conceptual structure of Industry 5.0, pursuant to its productivity, impact and contents according to the literature available in Scopus. To this end, we have retrieved and analyzed 343 publications from 2018 to 2022, using SciMAT, which has allowed us to establish a detailed frame of reference about the main lines of research, development and innovation related to Industry 5.0 and the agents vitalizing it.