Strategies for Knowledge Generation, Decision Support, and Overcoming Digital Hurdles in the Context of Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0

Abstract

Traditional academic discourse has long prioritized published sources—such as monographs, peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, and legal or regulatory documents—as the sole authoritative references for scientific inquiry. While these sources undoubtedly provide a validated foundation of disciplinary knowledge, they also represent the codification of past insights and often lag behind emerging developments. This paper critically examines the limitations of this conventional epistemic framework and argues for its deliberate extension. In an era characterized by rapid information dissemination and knowledge creation across diverse platforms, a significant proportion of relevant expertise now resides outside the boundaries of traditional literature. Insights from domain experts, practitioners, real-time media (e.g., news reports, podcasts, video content), original data collection, experimental inquiry, and scholarly dialog increasingly constitute valuable sources of scientific knowledge. Drawing a parallel to data-driven disciplines, where historical records are complemented by real-time analytics and user-derived insights, this article outlines the categories of such contemporary knowledge that warrant academic recognition and proposes rigorous methodologies for their systematic integration into scholarly work.