Enablers and Capabilities for the Digital Supply Chain

Dear Colleagues,

Sources of raw materials and components, as well as logistic bottlenecks, have led to massive instability in supply chains. In particular, recent disruptive phenomena—such as the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions—have highlighted that the traditional sequential supply chain model is not well-equipped for facing challenges concerning unpredictable black swan events (Ardolino et al., 2021).

To cope with these challenges, firms need to offset automation by supporting workers and increasing companies' productivity. Indeed, digital transformation has become an increasingly popular topic for both practitioners and researchers since combining digital applications with operational changes can lead to significant performance improvements and competitiveness enhancement (Yang et al., 2021). Digital technologies can also make manufacturing companies and the entire supply chain more resilient with respect to confronting disruptive events, such as a pandemic, as well as making processes more efficient, increasing productivity, and making work more reliable and safer for workers (Ivanov et al., 2021; Kamarthi & Li, 2020).

At the same time, to deal effectively with these disruptive events, the mere adoption of digital technologies is not enough; there is a need for a targeted development of appropriate digital capabilities that might significantly benefit enterprises' performance (Queiroz et al., 2020).

This Special Issue seeks contributions that shed light on the features of the digital supply chain and its potential benefits, as well as the enablers and capabilities to support it.

Accordingly, this Special Issue calls for both theoretical and practical research papers that are capable of providing frameworks, enablers, barriers, best practices, and capabilities on the digital supply chain.

In particular, papers with respect to the following areas are invited:

• Comparison between traditional and digital supply chains;
• Contract management in the digital supply chain;
• Critical success factors for the implementation of a digital supply chain;
• Digital capabilities enabling the digital supply chain;
• Performance measurement in the digital supply chain;
• Standards for systems interoperability in the digital supply chain;
• Supply chain risk management in the digital supply chain;
• Supply optimization in the digital supply chain;
• The role of digital technologies for supply chain resilience;
• The role of digital technologies in facing supply chain disruptions;
• The role of digital technologies in the digital supply chain;
• Sustainability in the digital supply chain.

References:

• Ardolino, M., Bacchetti, A. & Ivanov, D. Analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts on manufacturing: a systematic literature review and future research agenda. Oper Manag Res 15, 551–566 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-021-00225-9
• Ivanov, D., Blackhurst, J., & Das, A. (2021). Supply chain resilience and its interplay with digital technologies: making innovations work in emergency situations. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 51(2), 97–103. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPDLM-03-2021-409
• Kamarthi, S., & Li, W. (2020). Technology enablers for manufacturing resilience in the COVID and Post-COVID Era. Smart and Sustainable Manufacturing Systems, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.1520/SSMS20200064
• Queiroz, M.M., Ivanov, D., Dolgui, A., Fosso Wamba, S., (2020). Impacts of epidemic outbreaks on supply chains: mapping a research agenda amid the COVID-19 pandemic through a structured literature review, Annals of Operations Research. Springer US. doi:10.1007/s10479-020-03685-7
• Yang, M., Fu, M., Zhang, Z., 2021. The adoption of digital technologies in supply chains: Drivers, process and impact. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 169, 120795. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120795

Dr. Marco Ardolino
Dr. Luna Leoni
Guest Editors

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