A literature review on industry 4.0 implementation and performance: a contingency perspective

Purpose: This paper aims to review the literature on the relationship between the implementation and performance of 4.0 industrial revolution (IR) technologies and explores the extent to which the effects of several internal and external contingency factors on these relationships have been considered by the existing empirical studies.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve its purposes, this study follows a systematic review of the literature and explores the published empirical research on implementation and performance links of 4.0 IR technologies and the effects of contingency factors on these links in mainly three main databases.Findings: The findings of this study reveal that in general several contingency factors tend to have significant effects on the implementation and performance links of 4.0 IR in several contexts. This study also shows that the effects of these contingencies the effects of contingency factors on the implementation and performance links of 4.0 IR technologies are receiving growing attention from researchers and have been studied in different approaches but the moderation approach was the highest.Research limitations/implications: The review of the literature conducted in this study refers to those studies published mostly by three main databases (i.e. Scopus, Web of Sciences, and Science Direct), and only those papers published in English, and thus does not contain publications out of these restrictions.Originality/value: This is one of the early literature review studies to explore and discuss the current state of research on the effects of contingency factors on the relationships between the implementation and performance of 4.0 IR technologies in the contexts of logistics and supply chain management.