Smart, Sustainable, and Resilient Supply Chains in the Digital Era: Exploring Pathways, Paradoxes, Transformations, and Governance
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 212
Special Issue Editors
Interests: digital supply chains; sustainability; supply chain resilience; circular economy; Industry 4.0 applications in operations management
Interests: supply chains; quality management; operations management; dynamic capability; sustainability
Interests: supply chain management; logistics operations; sustainable supply chains; circular economy; supply chain performance; manufacturing sector; digital transformation; Industry 4.0; big data analytics; artificial intelligence in supply chains; blockchain in supply chains
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The digital era has profoundly reshaped global supply chains with technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, the Internet of Things, and big data analytics. These advances have created new opportunities for smart, sustainable, and resilient supply chain design—enhancing transparency, circularity, and operational agility. However, they also generate paradoxes and tensions between efficiency and responsibility, innovation and stability, and global integration and local responsiveness. This Special Issue, ‘Smart, Sustainable, and Resilient Supply Chains in the Digital Era: Exploring Pathways, Paradoxes, Transformations, and Governance’, aims to explore how digital transformation interacts with sustainability and resilience imperatives. It seeks to advance theoretical, empirical, and methodological insights into how organizations navigate digital–sustainability paradoxes and design responsible, future-ready supply networks. By integrating management, technology, and sustainability perspectives, this Special Issue aspires to enrich scholarly debate and inform actionable strategies for achieving balance between competitiveness, ethical responsibility, and long-term resilience.
This Special Issue invites research that explores the intersections of digital transformation, sustainability, and resilience in supply chain management. Key themes include the following:
(1) Pathways: Examinations of how Industry 4.0 technologies enable sustainable and circular operations through digital integration, smart logistics, and data-driven transparency.
(2) Paradoxes: Analyses of the tensions and dualities that emerge between digital efficiency and sustainability commitments, as well as how firms navigate these competing demands using paradox and systems thinking.
(3) Transformations: Investigations of the evolution of supply chain resilience and adaptability under technological disruption, including predictive analytics, automation, and organizational learning.
(4) Governance: Explorations of the ethical, institutional, and policy frameworks for responsible innovation, ESG reporting, and sustainable digital supply chain finance.
Together, these themes aim to deepen our understanding of how organizations can build supply chains that are technologically advanced, environmentally conscious, and socially responsible, offering new pathways toward sustainable competitiveness in the digital age.
Dr. Saad Zighan
Dr. Ziad Al-Kalha
Dr. Luay Jum’a
Dr. Nidal Dwaikat
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 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 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
- Industry 4.0
- sustainable supply chains
- digital transformation
- blockchain and IoT
- artificial intelligence in operations
- circular economy
- supply chain resilience
- big data analytics
- FinTech and green finance
- smart logistics
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