Lessons from digital industrial platform successes and failures in smart manufacturing - A systematic review and sociotechnical explanation

Albayrak B, Reichenstein T, Franke J (2026)


Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2026

Journal

Book Volume: 6

Article Number: 100181

Journal Issue: 2

DOI: 10.1016/j.digbus.2026.100181

Abstract

Digital Industrial Platforms (DIPs) are central to the digital transformation of Smart Manufacturing (SM), yet adoption outcomes remain uneven. Existing research is fragmented across technological, governance, economic, and behavioural streams that often assess success and failure through different criteria. As a result, the same platform may appear technically advanced yet commercially rejected, governance-mature yet behaviourally avoided, or economically attractive yet organisationally non-routinised. To address this gap, we conduct a theory-oriented systematic literature review of peer-reviewed empirical research on DIP adoption in SM. Following PRISMA reporting, 35 empirical studies are analysed through a hybrid deductive-inductive best-fit framework synthesis. The review integrates fragmented findings into a configurational account of adoption rather than treating adoption barriers and enablers as isolated factors. The synthesis organises the evidence into six analytical perspectives: strategic-economic, network, institutional, psychological-behavioural, technological, and organisational. These perspectives are integrated into the Digital Industrial Platform Adoption Framework (DIPAF), which explains how different adoption conditions interact and whether they form a coherent configuration capable of stabilising platform use. Applied to three documented cases, ABB, an IIoT platform, and Catena-X, the framework shows that visible failure tends to surface in the perspective foregrounded by each case's originating stream, while recovery consistently depends on the organisational perspective. The organisational perspective is therefore not merely a downstream implementation condition, but the conversion mechanism through which externally governed platform capabilities become routinised internal tasks.

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How to cite

APA:

Albayrak, B., Reichenstein, T., & Franke, J. (2026). Lessons from digital industrial platform successes and failures in smart manufacturing - A systematic review and sociotechnical explanation. Digital Business, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.digbus.2026.100181

MLA:

Albayrak, Baris, Tobias Reichenstein, and Jörg Franke. "Lessons from digital industrial platform successes and failures in smart manufacturing - A systematic review and sociotechnical explanation." Digital Business 6.2 (2026).

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