Strategic leadership and ubiquitous ambient intelligence: a new approach to reconcile exploitation and exploration in the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

The authors examine how new smart technological concepts such as ubiquitous ambient intelligence (UAmI) can help strategic leaders manage the unprecedented challenges in the informational environment of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). They first recast the assumptions of exploration-exploitation paradoxes in the context of the 4IR, highlighting strengths and limitations of traditional approaches in this new informational environment. Then they introduce new technological concepts that are emerging as centerpieces of the 4IR (e.g., UAmI), with the potential to address some of the information-processing limitations faced by boundedly rational strategic leaders. They organize the utility of different approaches in both traditional and 4IR contexts by distinguishing between individual and collective intelligence. Finally, they provide a tentative agenda for future research in this area. Ultimately, their chapter seeks to advance the discourse on the interface between technological (e.g., UAmI) and non-technological (e.g., strategic leadership) requirements for managing continuity and change in the 4IR.