Socio-economic dimensions and human centricity in Industry 5.0: a study on manufacturing sectors in central and Eastern European economies

PurposeThis study aims to quantify the concept of Industry 5.0, with a focus on human-centricity in the manufacturing sector.Design/methodology/approachThe panel nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag method is applied to assess asymmetry and vulnerability in the food, textile, chemical manufacturing, high-tech and transportation sectors. The robustness of the results is tested using a panel Granger non-causality test and panel vector autoregressive models.FindingsThis study finds that financial unions, fair internal markets, gender and youth participation are significant factors for human centricity in the manufacturing sectors. The NARDL results suggest that both the chemical and high-tech industries human participation are insignificant in both the long run and short run. The results of the food industry are significant in both the sort run and the long run.Research limitations/implicationsManufacturing sectors need to create sustainable employment strategies that lead to stable, enduring and satisfying jobs in order to achieve human centricity. Involve skilled workers in important decision-making processes and empower them with technology.Originality/valueThis study differed from prior research in several ways. Firstly, it incorporates the social dimension as a control variable in the pursuit of I5.0 implementation across various manufacturing sectors. Secondly, it quantifies the human-centricity aspect of I5.0 within these sectors.