Digital Transformation for Supply Chain Resilience and ESG Performance

Dear Colleagues, 

In a global context marked by economic uncertainty, climate pressures, and increasing demands for transparency and responsible practices, the digital transformation has become a key catalyst for strengthening supply chain resilience and improving ESG performance. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), and predictive analytics are strategically reshaping how organizations anticipate risks, optimize operations, and manage environmental and social responsibilities.

Digital solutions offer enhanced visibility across supply chain flows, enabling better traceability, early risk detection, and rapid adaptation to disruptions. Framing the digital transformation as a strategic approach can help policymakers and professionals feel purposeful and confident in their capacity to develop ethical, resilient supply chains that meet stakeholder expectations.

This Special Issue will examine how digital innovations can foster sustainable value chain models, enhance ESG performance, and reinforce organizational resilience in an evolving global landscape. By integrating interdisciplinary perspectives from supply chain management, digital transformation, corporate sustainability, and ESG governance, the Special Issue aims to showcase diverse insights and recognize their role in advancing sustainable, responsible, and resilient supply chains.

Uncertainty, recurrent supply chain disruptions, and growing pressures for sustainable and responsible practices characterize the current economic, social, and climatic landscape. To address these challenges, organizations are increasingly required to rethink their operational models through a strategic digital transformation approach. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), and predictive analytics are becoming essential tools for enhancing resilience and embedding ESG criteria into decision-making processes.

Digitalization enhances visibility across logistics flows, enabling improved traceability, risk anticipation, and rapid adaptation to change. At the same time, Environmental, Social, and Governance considerations have become central to assessing organizational sustainability and building stakeholder trust. In this context, the digital transformation is not merely a technological upgrade, but also a strategic pathway that supports the development of agile, ethical, and forward-looking supply chains, inspiring confidence in its long-term value.

This Special Issue will examine how digital technologies can create sustainable value chains, enhance ESG performance, and strengthen organizational resilience in an increasingly complex and dynamic global environment.

The primary aim of this Special Issue is to showcase explorations of how the digital transformation can strengthen supply chain resilience and advance ESG performance through innovative strategies, technologies, and sustainability-focused organizational models. This focus recognizes the vital role of expertise in shaping sustainable supply chain practices.

This Special Issue aligns directly with the scope of the Sustainability journal, which promotes interdisciplinary research dedicated to sustainable development. By integrating perspectives from supply chain management, digital transformation, corporate sustainability, and ESG governance, this Special Issue aims to build a collaborative knowledge base that supports environmental, social, and economic objectives for a more sustainable future.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Digital Transformation and Supply Chain Resilience:

• The role of AI, blockchain, IoT, and advanced analytics in enhancing operational resilience.
• Digital solutions for risk management, traceability, and business continuity.
• Innovative models of digital collaboration within value chains.

ESG Performance and Operational Sustainability:

• Integration of ESG criteria into digital strategies and decision-making.
• Assessment of environmental, social, and economic impacts on digitally enhanced supply chains.
• Organizational practices and policies for responsible and sustainable governance.

Strategic and Managerial Approaches in the Digital Era:

• Digital tools supporting responsible decision-making and sustainable resource management.
• Governance models facilitating technological adoption across supply chains.
• Digital solutions that promote circularity and environmental efficiency.

Regulations, Standards, and Cross-Sector Collaboration:

• Convergence of sustainability reporting standards and the role of digital technologies in enabling compliance.
• Public policies and partnerships supporting the transition toward sustainable value chains.
• International initiatives that promote digitalization in the ESG context.

The following contributions are expected:

• Empirical studies on the use of digital technologies for risk management, traceability, and reduction in environmental
• Theoretical research on the role of digital tools in ESG governance and resilience strategies.
• Case studies on the adoption of digital solutions in operations, logistics, or stakeholder management.
• International comparative analyses on sustainability policies, standards, and regulations in the context of digital transformation.
• Review articles (systematic reviews, meta-analyses, bibliometric studies) exploring the relationship between digitalization, sustainability, and resilience across value chains.

By integrating these contributions, this Special Issue will provide a robust scientific framework for understanding how digital accounting and sustainability reporting can facilitate digital transformation, enhance resilience, and improve ESG performance across global supply chains.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Constantin Aurelian Ionescu
Prof. Dr. Marian Ilie Siminica
Prof. Dr. Maria Cristina Ștefan
Prof. Dr. Valentin Radu
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-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.

• digital transformation
• sustainable supply chains
• esg performance
• digital accounting
• sustainability reporting
• management control systems
• corporate sustainability
• environmental cost accounting
• data transparency
• risk management