Resilience and Agility of Supply Chains and Their Impact on Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to announce the new Special Issue “Resilience and Agility of Supply Chains and Their Impact on Sustainability” in the journal Sustainability.

Numerous environmental disasters, global health concerns, political instability, strikes, terrorist attacks and insolvencies have led to severe supply bottlenecks and production shortfalls. The current COVID-19 pandemic exemplifies how numerous networks and even entire industries can be impacted by the adverse effects of specific events (e.g., Ivanov, 2020). Due to the domino effect, it is often not only individual actors in a supply chain that are affected by a disruptive event but rather the entire network (Schroeder & Lodemann, 2021). To prevent disturbances and counteract or avoid supply chain interruptions altogether, the resilience and agility of supply chains should be increased (Tang, 2006).

Transparency is an indispensable prerequisite for a resilient and agile supply chain. The use of new data-based technologies, such as artificial intelligence, sensor technology, digital twins and blockchain, is driving digital transformation and significantly increasing transparency in companies and supply chains. Transparency in supply chain management requires the virtual mapping of individual value creation stages or the entire value creation process.

The associated availability of high-resolution process data in conjunction with the increased intensity of complex value-added and supplier networks through real-time communication makes it possible to modify or further develop existing approaches to risk and sustainability management as well as risk governance (Schroeder & Lodemann, 2021).

This Special Issue is dedicated to understanding how new data-based technologies can improve the resilience and agility of supply chains and how they impact sustainability. 

Scientific contributions that deal with implementing related concepts and measures and the resulting consequences for managing resilient and agile supply chains are desired.

In this Special Issue, full research articles, conceptual papers, literature reviews and case studies are welcome. An empirical-based methodology comprising both qualitative (case study, field study) and quantitative research (experiment, survey, archival data) is preferred. Papers using mathematical modelling developments or analytical methods will not be included in this Special Issue.

The following topics are of particular interest: 

• The process of increasing the resilience and agility of supply chains;
• Sustainable supply chain (risk) management;
• Supply chain risk governance;
• Supply chain risk and crisis management;
• Business continuity management;
• The influence of new technologies on environmental, supply chain and process risks and their management;
• The application of artificial intelligence, blockchain and digital twins to risk management.

 References

1. Ivanov, D. Predicting the impacts of epidemic outbreaks on global supply chains: A simulation-based analysis on the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2) case. Transport Research Part E Logistics and Transportation Review 2020, 136, 101922. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2020.101922.
2. Schroeder, M.; Lodemann, S. A Systematic Investigation of the Integration of Machine Learning into Supply Chain Risk Management. Logistics 2021, 5, 62. https://doi.org/10.3390/logistics5030062.
3. Tang, C.S. Robust strategies for mitigating supply chain disruptions. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications 2006, 9, 33–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/13675560500405584.

Dr. Meike Schroeder
Dr. Hendrik Birkel
Dr. Michael Herburger
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• new technologies
• supply chain risks
• risk management
• risk governance
• resilience
• agility
• disruption
• artificial intelligence
• blockchain
• sustainable supply chain
• business continuity management