Exaptationary Industry 4.0: Graphene as pathfinder?

Abstract

This paper seeks to answer the puzzling question whether Industry 4.0 inevitably triggers a sociogenesis that results in new attitudes toward the nature of the socio-economic innovation ecosystem. It asks whether Industry 4.0, as a shifter of techno-economic paradigm, may carry higher exaptation potential, and if so, which technology could catalyse this effect. Prevailing literature suggests that graphene technology can easily become a pathfinder in this respect. The paper does not only consider why and how a graphene-based unfolding of Industry 4.0 can fulfil this function (i.e., making exaptations easier in a broader scale), but it also takes into account the wider context for exaptations by asking whether the current configuration of the real economy, the financial universe and the public sector offers a supportive ground for innovation and exaptation seeker behaviours.