Resilient Supply Chains in the Digital Age: Strategic Approaches to Operational Sustainability
A Special Issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050) belonging to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2027 | Viewed by 1377
Editors
Interests: intelligent SCM; green logistics; logistics resilience; logistics performance; logistics agility; service SCM; logistics eco-efficiency; logistics optimization
Interests: SCM; logistics performance; logistics risk management; services SCM; logistics optimization; service marketing; international marketing
Interests: intelligent SCM; green logistics; logistics resilience; logistics performance; logistics agility; service SCM; logistics eco-efficiency; logistics optimization
Interests: natural language processing; large language models; web mining and text mining; information retrieval; machine learning and deep learning; semantic web; web services; social networks; multi-agent systems
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The current era of “polycrises” imposes constant disruptions on supply chains, rendering traditional management models focused on cost reduction obsolete. This Special Issue will address the convergent “twin transition” between the digital and ecological transformations, filling a critical gap by prioritizing digitalization for operational resilience and sustainability over efficiency. Located at the intersection of risk management, digital transformation, and sustainable development, this Special Issue will theorize the impact of emerging technologies (AI, blockchain, IoT, digital twins) on the survival and adaptability of logistics networks. For practitioners, it will provide decision-making frameworks and empirical evidence that can be used to transform digitalization into a lever of resilience against climate and geopolitical shocks while respecting ESG imperatives.
Contributors are invited to respond to one of the following themes:
- How do artificial intelligence and digital twins transform proactive risk management and test network resilience in real-time in uncertain environments?
- What roles do blockchain and traceability technologies play in building ethical, transparent and resilient global supply chains?
- How does digitalization facilitate the implementation of a circular economy and sustainable logistics loops while optimizing performance without increasing carbon footprint?
- How can advanced automation, human well-being, and the adoption of digital resilience strategies by SMEs with limited resources be reconciled from an Industry 5.0 perspective?
- What are the challenges of cybersecurity, data governance, and information sharing in collaborative and resilient supply chains?
- How does digitalization promote productive relocation, and which integrated measurement systems allow us to jointly evaluate resilience, digitalization, and sustainability?
1. Introduction and Scientific Context
The systemic instability of global markets exposes vulnerabilities in supply chains optimized for efficiency. Organizational resilience will become essential in the face of recurring crises. Digital acceleration (Supply Chain 4.0/5.0) offers opportunities to improve network visibility and agility. This research theorizes the “twin transition”: how digitalization simultaneously catalyzes resilience and sustainable performance, integrating technology, operational survival, and environmental responsibility.
2. Purpose of the Special Issue and Alignment with Sustainability
This Special Issue will bring together research that explores how digital tools strengthen supply chain resilience to design self-correcting and sustainable logistics networks. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, it will address the economic (operational sustainability), environmental (reduced carbon footprint), and social (impact on human capital) dimensions of sustainable development in the face of disruption.
3. Suggested topics for contributions
- Predictive and prescriptive analytics for proactive disruption risk management.
- Blockchain and smart contracts for secure and transparent supply flows.
- Digital twins: Simulation and modeling of systemic resilience.
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning for real-time decision-making agility.
- Internet of Things (IoT) and smart sensors for end-to-end visibility of the chain.
- Digitally assisted circular logistics: Optimizing return loops and recycling.
- Cyber resilience: Protecting digital logistics infrastructure from growing threats.
- Supply Chain 5.0: Synergy between humans and cobotic systems for social sustainability.
- Demand and last-mile management via resilient digital platforms.
- Agile sourcing strategies and reshoring facilitated by additive manufacturing (3D).
- Digital carbon footprint assessment: Reconciling IT performance and Net-Zero objectives.
- Data governance and ethics in collaborative logistics ecosystems.
- The impact of digitization on the flexibility of multimodal transport networks.
- Performance measurement frameworks (KPIs) that simultaneously integrate resilience, digitalization, and sustainability.
- SME resilience: Obstacles and levers for digital transformation in emerging countries.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Prof. Dr. Lhoussaine Alla
Prof. Dr. Aziz Hmioui
Prof. Dr. Badr Bentalha
Prof. Dr. El Habib Nfaoui
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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-anonymized 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.
Keywords
- supply chain resilience
- digital transformation
- operational sustainability
- strategic management
- supply chain disruption
- digital supply chain
- supply chain optimization
- industry 4.0
- logistics innovation
- sustainability paradigm
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