If you ask the manufacturing and chemical sectors what their greatest blessing has been in recent years, the answer will generally be the plethora of natural gas that has been made accessible to them - and how this has decreased their cost of doing of business.

Move over, Alexa. Wal-Mart is going high-tech in its fight against Amazon.com.

Emerging technologies on Gartner Inc.'s "Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies 2017" reveal three megatrends that will enable businesses to survive and thrive in the digital economy over the next five to 10 years.

Even if the craze for Bitcoin and Ethereum abates, the power of the "blockchain" tech behind those currencies is very real. Here's how businesses are trying to harness it - and why they can't afford to ignore it.

"Storied plastics" - or plastics that are collected by waste stream, sorted by material type and traced back to the original point of origin - are a good choice of material for use in packaging as companies attempt to improve their sustainability practices, research suggests.