Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) (Seuring and Müller 2008) faces unprecedented volatility and frequent disruptions. The challenges ahead for academics and practitioners call for new paradigms to strengthen resilience (Craighead et al. 2007; Wieland 2021) and improve SSCM learning (Silvestre et al. 2020) in more equitable and just closed-loop SC and circular economies (Jabbour et al. 2018). The aim of this Special Issue is to explore the various operations management and logistics challenges facing SSCM in the era of sustainability transitions and Industry 4.0 (Nascimento et al., 2018; Cunha et al., 2021; Caiado et al., 2021). Sustainability transitions differ from historic transitions because they are based on social good, ecological logic, and broader stakeholders’ participation (Geels 2011). Transitions encompass transformations in culture, ideologies, policies, laws and regulations, technologies, consumer behaviour, manufacturing, and services operations (Köhler et al. 2019).  This Special Issue welcomes researchers from a variety of fields interfacing SSCM and sustainability transitions such as management, engineering, economy, and related disciplines, willing to contribute original and high-quality research papers to fulfill our aim. Submissions may include conceptual papers on theory elaboration (Wacker 1998, 2008), theory-based systematic literature reviews (Durach et al. 2021; Seuring et al. 2020; Thomé et al. 2016), methodological advances in operations research and modelling, qualitative surveys and case studies, quantitative empirical methods, and mixed-methods research (Ketokivi and Choi 2014; Choi et al. 2016). Manuscripts will cover both theoretical end empirical studies. Topics covering supply chain digitalization, green supply chain, sales and operations planning, Industry and Logistics 4.0, and issues related to COVID-19 disruptions in healthcare or the general SCM environment are equally welcomed. All papers contributed will have to comply with the journal guidelines for authors. They should unveil the pressing matters facing the interface of sustainability transitions and SSCM.  It is also expected that the contributed papers will bridge theory and practice, opening avenues for new research agendas and business models.   

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Transportation and logistical problems in sustainable supply chain management;
• Sustainability in supply chain and operation management;
• Last mile delivery;
• Food supply chains;
• Sustainable logistics and vehicle routing problems in supply chain management;
• Heuristics optimization methods in sustainable supply chain networks;
• Lean and agile management in sustainability management;
• Ethics and sustainability in supply chain management;
• Big data and predictive analytics in sustainable supply chain management;
• Industry and Logistics 4.0 in supply chain management;
• Sales and Operations Planning interfaces with sustainability, global economies, and industry 4.0;
• Supply chain optimization models using sustainable practices;
• Supplier selection models in a sustainable environment;
• Sustainable practices in healthcare management;
• Application of multicriteria methods in sustainable engineering SSCM;
• Risk management for sustainable supply chains;
• Sustainable humanitarian supply chain management and practices;
• Fuzzy sets theory and applications in sustainable supply chain management;
• Fuzzy, hybrid and group multiple-criteria decision-making methods in SSCM;
• Data envelopment analysis and supply chain flexibility and resilience.

Original papers relating to the above topics that provide the latest scholarly information and case studies on sustainable supply chain management and its applications are welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Márcio Tavares Thomé
Prof. Dr. Luiz Felipe Scavarda
Prof. Dr. Adriana Leiras
Prof. Dr. Rodrigo Goyannes Gusmão Caiado
Guest Editors

References

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

Choi, T. M., Cheng, T. C. E., & Zhao, X. (2016). Multi‐methodological research in operations management. Production and Operations Management, 25(3), 379-389.

Craighead, C. W., Blackhurst, J., Rungtusanatham, M. J., & Handfield, R. B. (2007). The severity of supply chain disruptions: design characteristics and mitigation capabilities. Decision sciences, 38(1), 131-156.

Cunha, V. H. C., Caiado, R. G. G., Corseuil, E. T., Neves, H. F., & Bacoccoli, L. (2021). Automated compliance checking in the context of Industry 4.0: from a systematic review to an empirical fuzzy multi-criteria approach. Soft Computing, 25(8), 6055-6074.

Geels, F. W. (2011). The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions: Responses to seven criticisms. Environmental innovation and societal transitions, 1(1), 24-40.

Jabbour, A. B. L. S., Jabbour, C. J. C., Godinho Filho, M., & Roubaud, D. (2018). Industry 4.0 and the circular economy: a proposed research agenda and original roadmap for sustainable operations. Annals of Operations Research, 270(1), 273-286.

Ketokivi, M., & Choi, T. (2014). Renaissance of case research as a scientific method. Journal of operations management, 32(5), 232-240.

Köhler, J., Geels, F. W., Kern, F., Markard, J., Onsongo, E., Wieczorek, A., ... Wells, P. (2019). An agenda for sustainability transitions research: State of the art and future directions. Environmental innovation and societal transitions, 31, 1-32.

Nascimento, D. L. M., Alencastro, V., Quelhas, O. L. G., Caiado, R. G. G., Garza-Reyes, J. A., Rocha-Lona, L., & Tortorella, G. (2018). Exploring Industry 4.0 technologies to enable circular economy practices in a manufacturing context: A business model proposal. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 30(3), 607-627.

Seuring, S. and Müller, M., 2008. From a literature review to a conceptual framework for sustainable supply chain management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 16 (15), 1699–1710.

Seuring, S., Yawar, S. A., Land, A., Khalid, R. U., & Sauer, P. C. (2020). The application of theory in literature reviews–illustrated with examples from supply chain management. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.

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., Scavarda, L. F., & Scavarda, A. J. (2016). Conducting systematic literature review in operations management. Production Planning & Control, 27(5), 408-420.

Wacker, J.G. (1998), A definition of theory: research guidelines for different theory-building research methods in operations management. Journal of Operations Management,16(4),361-385. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-6963(98)00019-9

Wacker, J.G. (2008). A conceptual understanding of requirements for theory-building research: guidelines for scientific theory building. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 44(3), 5–15.

Wieland, A. (2021). Dancing the supply chain: Toward transformative supply chain management. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 57(1), 58-73.

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