Special Issue "Digitalization and Sustainable Supply Chain Management in a Period of Crisis"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 January 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Luiz Felipe Scavarda
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 22453-900, Brazil
Interests: sustainable supply chain management; reverse logistics; sales and operations planning
Prof. Antonio Márcio Tavares Thomé
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 22453-900, Brazil
Interests: sustainable supply chain management; circular economy; disaster operations; humanitarian operations; digitalization; Industry 4.0; sales and operations planning; research methodology
Prof. Adriana Leiras
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 22453-900, Brazil
Interests: sustainable supply chain management; disaster operations; humanitarian operations; disasters relief; crisis management
Prof. Dr. Paulo Gonçalves
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Management, University of Lugano, Lugano CH-6904, Switzerland
Interests: humanitarian operations and supply chain management; humanitarian logistics and management; disasters relief; crisis management; system dynamics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to introduce this Special Issue (SI) of Sustainability. Its scope concerns aspects pertaining to digitalization and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) in a period of crisis. Original reviews, theoretical papers and theory-based empirical research are welcome. The SI focus is broad and intended to complement the existing literature on SSCM, advancing academic knowledge relevant to theory and practice.

SSCM affects firms and supply chain performance. Tasks and systems uncertainty from new digital technology perspectives brings risk assessment and management to the forefront. New trends in the confluence of supply chain and digital technologies emerge, such as IoT, cyber security, big data analytics, 3D printing, new material and new productive arrangements in manufacturing and services. In addition, the convergence of these technologies to economic, social and environmental performance deserves further investigation and scrutiny. The intertwined effects of emerging technologies and the complexities of sustainability and supply chain management are exacerbated further during recurrent or sudden crises. The phases of preparedness, response, and recovery after the occurrence of a sudden or recurrent disaster call for the inclusion of sustainability within the framework of digital SSCM and place even more challenging demands upon academics and practitioners. This Special Issue calls for innovative, theory-based research addressing the issues of SSCM, digitalization and humanitarian operations as a whole or as combined streams addressing the effects of digitalization and humanitarian operations or digitalization and SSCM, or SSCM and humanitarian operations. Theoretical and empirical original research works are welcome. The methods of qualitative and quantitative systematic literature reviews, empirical research using surveys, case studies, mathematical modelling and simulations and mixed methods are suitable to address the issues at hand. Papers allying rigor and relevance with implications for research and practice will receive particular attention from the editors.

This Special Issue welcomes further investigation on the initiatives and practices of SSCM trajectories towards sustainability (Silvestre et al., 2020) in periods of crisis and growing uncertainty related to SC digitalization, encompassing SSCM relationships with Industry 4.0 maturity levels (e.g., Caiado et al., 2021) and the circular economy (Julianelli et al., 2020). The extant literature portraying economic, social and environmental sustainability as a determinant, mediator, moderator and consequence in a conditional analysis of causal modelling at the corporate and the supply chain levels are equally welcomed (Magon et al., 2018). Additional theoretical research, frameworks and modelling relating the dimensions of sustainability and its relationships to corporate and supply chain performance under growing digitalization and SC disruptions are desired. In addition, several under-researched themes relating sustainability to environmental and societal changes are worth mentioning as potential candidates for this Special Issue. Among them, one could stress the economic evaluations of disasters (Eckhart et al., 2019), social risk management (e.g., Cunha et al., 2019), environmental risk management (Oliveira et al., 2019), climatic change (e.g., Seles et al., 2018), energy management (e.g., Fernando et al., 2018), sustainable infrastructure (Thomé et al., 2016; Ferrer et al., 2018), purchasing strategies (Lamenza et al., 2018) and public procurement (Dalmonico et al., 2018). Knowing how these themes evolve under the accrued risks in period of crisis and their trajectories towards sustainability in the face of increased and intertwined digital technologies will open new avenues for research, practice and policies of SSCM.

We are looking forward to your paper on the abovementioned and related thematic areas.

Reference

Caiado, R.G.G., Scavarda, L.F., Gavião, L.O., Ivson, P., Nascimento, D.L.M., & Garza-Reyes, J.A. (2021). Fuzzy rule-based industry 4.0 maturity model for manufacturing and supply chain management operations. International Journal of Production Economics, 231, 107883.

Cunha, L., Ceryno, P., & Leiras, A. (2019). Social supply chain risk management: A taxonomy, a framework and a research agenda. Journal of Cleaner Production, 220, 1101–1110.

Delmonico, D., Jabbour, C. J. C., Pereira, S. C. F., de Sousa Jabbour, A. B. L., Renwick, D. W. S., & Thomé, A. M. T. (2018). Unveiling barriers to sustainable public procurement in emerging economies: Evidence from a leading sustainable supply chain initiative in Latin America. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 134, 70–79.

Eckhardt, D., Leiras, A., & Thomé, A. M. T. (2019). Systematic literature review of methodologies for assessing the costs of disasters. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 33, 398–416.

Fernando, Y., Bee, P. S., Jabbour, C. J. C., & Thomé, A. M. T. (2018). Understanding the effects of energy management practices on renewable energy supply chains: Implications for energy policy in emerging economies. Energy Policy, 118, 418–428.

Ferrer, A. L. C., Thomé, A. M. T., & Scavarda, A. J. (2018). Sustainable urban infrastructure: A review. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 128, 360–372.

Julianelli, V., Caiado, R.G.G., Scavarda, L.F., Cruz, S.P.M.F. (2020). Interplay between reverse logistics and circular economy: Critical success factors-based taxonomy and framework. Resources Conservation and Recycling, 158, 104784.

Lamenza, A. A., Fontainha, T. C., & Leiras, A. (2019). Purchasing strategies for relief items in humanitarian operations. Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

Oliveira, F. N. ; Leiras, A. ; Ceryno, P. S. (2019). Environmental risk management in supply chains: a taxonomy, a framework and future research avenues. Journal of Cleaner Production, 232, 1257–1271.

Magon, R. B., Thomé, A. M. T., Ferrer, A. L. C., & Scavarda, L. F. (2018). Sustainability and performance in operations management research. Journal of Cleaner Production, 190, 104–117.

Seles, B. M. R. P., de Sousa Jabbour, A. B. L., Jabbour, C. J. C., de Camargo Fiorini, P., Mohd-Yusoff, Y., & Thomé, A. M. T. (2018). Business opportunities and challenges as the two sides of the climate change: Corporate responses and potential implications for big data management towards a low carbon society. Journal of Cleaner Production, 189, 763–774.

Silvestre, B. S., Silva, M. E., Cormack, A., & Thome, A. M. T. (2020). Supply chain sustainability trajectories: learning through sustainability initiatives. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.

Thomé, A. M. T., Ceryno, P. S., Scavarda, A., & Remmen, A. (2016). Sustainable infrastructure: A review and a research agenda. Journal of Environmental Management, 184, 143–156.

Prof. Luiz Felipe Scavarda
Prof. Antonio Márcio Tavares Thomé
Prof. Adriana Leiras
Prof. Paulo Gonçalves
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 papers will be 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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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 1900 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

  • Industry 4.0
  • data analytics
  • disasters relief
  • humanitarian logistics
  • crisis management

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Article
The Effect of Supply Chain Management Strategy on Operational and Financial Performance
by
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5138; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095138 - 04 May 2021
Viewed by 567
Abstract
Given that small and medium manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) are key to national economic development, the application of supply chain strategies that support their sustainability is critical. This study aims to identify the effects of supply chain management (SCM) on the operational performance of [...] Read more.
Given that small and medium manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) are key to national economic development, the application of supply chain strategies that support their sustainability is critical. This study aims to identify the effects of supply chain management (SCM) on the operational performance of SMEs in Korea, specifically considering organizational competencies. To achieve this, an empirical survey was conducted on 300 Korean manufacturing SMEs that had introduced SCM strategies. The relationships between the variables were analyzed through structural equation modeling. These show that specific SCM strategies and organizational competencies had a significant effect on overall business performance. Furthermore, the SCM strategies had a significant effect on SME organizational competencies. Additionally, we analyzed the mediating effect of organizational competencies on the effect of SCM strategy on overall business performance. We found that organizational competence mediated the effect of SCM strategy on operational performance, but not on financial performance. The study shows that introducing SCM strategies directly improves business performance and is closely related to competencies such as research and development, technology commercialization, production capability, and marketing capabilities. Consequently, a combination of SCM strategies and organizational competencies can generate sustainable overall business performance among SMEs. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Article
Prioritization of the Best Sustainable Supply Chain Risk Management Practices Using a Structural Analysis Based-Approach
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 4608; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094608 - 21 Apr 2021
Viewed by 539
Abstract
Companies attempt to improve the performance of their supply chain (SC) by distinguishing and presenting feasible sustainable development practices (SDP). Considering SDP without focusing on sustainability risks may disturb the company’s future. Very few studies in the extant literature have dealt with the [...] Read more.
Companies attempt to improve the performance of their supply chain (SC) by distinguishing and presenting feasible sustainable development practices (SDP). Considering SDP without focusing on sustainability risks may disturb the company’s future. Very few studies in the extant literature have dealt with the impact of (SDP) on the supply chain risk management (SCRM). In fact, the aim of this paper is to classify and prioritize SDPs according to their priority for better risk management and effective SC performance. The proposed approach comprises two phases. First, 14 SDPs are identified and selected from the literature. Second, MICMAC (Matrice d’impacts croisés multiplication appliquée à un classement) method as a structural analysis method applies to identify and assess sustainable supply chain risk management (SSCRM) practices which reduce risk in the SC. The input data for each phase are based on Delphi technique, which is a process group used to collect the opinions of experts in the field. The aim of the proposed approach is to prioritize SSCRM practices and classify them into influential, non-influential, independent and dependent practices and their mutual relationships. The six key findings SSCRM practices from direct and indirect classification include the following elements: (1) Delayed differentiation, (2) Information sharing with upstream and/or downstream partners, (3) Simplification of product dismantling/anticipation of product end of life, (4) Supplier/subcontractor’s performance assessment, (5) establishing shared supply management and (6) establishment of contracts with transporters. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop