The economic environment in which companies create value today is characterized by greater vulnerability, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity than ever before. Natural disasters, geopolitical conflicts and other disruptions are affecting global supply chains and presenting great changes to established supply chain management models, processes and tools. In the meantime, Planet Earth has reached its limits; climate change and shortages of raw materials are forcing companies and supply chains to transition to more sustainable operations. The commoditization of high-tech products, which is evident in many sectors, is driving the servitization of the manufacturing industry. This presents a golden opportunity for companies to cope with the above-mentioned challenges with greater responsiveness and sustainability.
Tomorrow's supply chains must be able to react quickly to disruptions and changes. The concepts of resilience and responsiveness are key, as are flexibility, agility, adaptability and improvisation. The renewed battle for natural resources requires economic growth to be decoupled from the extraction of raw materials, ultimately forcing a transformation of established 'take, make, waste' supply chains into circular systems. R-strategies such as reduce, reuse, remanufacture and recycle play a special role in doing so. The ultimate aim is to increase resource efficiency in existing value chains, extend the service life of products, and close the loop.
Scientific literature agrees that digital technologies are key to realizing the responsive, servitized and circular supply chains of tomorrow. Important building blocks include the internet of things, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, digital twins for products and supply chains, blockchains and digital platforms. However, insufficient research has been conducted into how these building blocks support responsiveness, servitization and the transition to sustainability and circularity as a triple transformation.
This Special Issue seeks contributions that exemplify technology- or data-driven solutions for implementing resilient and circular supply chains, as well as the associated business models. Contributions employing a broad range of methodological approaches are encouraged, including but not limited to conceptual, qualitative, and quantitative research. It is essential that these contributions also derive and discuss managerial implications. We also welcome contributions addressing related topics not listed above.
Contributions should explore digital technologies in supply chain management within today's challenging business environment or specific industry contexts, such as automotive, chemicals, food, life sciences and healthcare, logistics service providers, manufacturing, or mining. Particularly interested are contributions that address the challenges and opportunities associated with digitalization, servitization and transition to sustainability and circularity across multiple supply chain tiers or at least in dyadic relationships.
All papers will be peer reviewed and should conform to Electronic Markets publication standards. Electronic Markets is a SSCI-listed journal with a 2024 Impact Factor of 6.8 and a 5-year Impact Factor of 10.0. Electronic Markets welcomes research from a technological, organizational, societal, and/or political perspective. Since Electronic Markets is a methodologically pluralistic journal, quantitative and qualitative research methods are both welcome as long as the studies are methodologically sound. Conceptual and theory-development papers, empirical hypothesis testing, and case-based studies are all welcome.