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

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