The digital transformation of supply chains should revolutionize entire management processes and improve various aspects of sustainability. In particular, the plans of Industry 4.0 aim towards a digitization of several procedures by exploiting emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, RFID and blockchain. The purpose of this study is to highlight how order and disruption events processes can be improved with the adoption of emerging technologies and how this reflects on the improvement of sustainability aspects. The study is based on the comparison of two simulation scenarios between three actors in the cheese supply chain. In particular, a first traditional scenario “as is” is simulated without the use of new technologies and is compared to a second scenario “to be” that adopts IoT, RFID and blockchain. The results show an improvement in time performance for managing both perfect and non-compliant orders. The developed framework highlights the impact of new technologies on sustainability aspects, showing further managerial implications.

Purpose: The paper presents a research methodology that could be used to carry out a systematic literature review on the current state of the art of the technological development in the field of the digitalization and unphysicalization of supply chains (SCs). A three-dimensional conceptual framework focusing on the relationship between Digital Technologies (DTs), business processes and SC performance is presented. The study identifies the emerging practices and areas of SC management that could be positively affected by the implementation of DTs. With this in mind, the emerging practices have a high probability to be considered future best practices.Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review was conducted on DTs in SC management. The methodology used aims to algorithmically and objectively standardize the information incorporated into thousands of scientific documents. Selected papers were analyzed to investigate the recent literature on SC digitalization and unphysicalization. A total of 87 DTs were selected to be analyzed and subsequently grouped into 11 macro-categories. 17 business processes linked to SC management are taken into account and 17 different impacts on SC management are presented. From a set of 1,585 papers, 5,060 emerging practices were collected and singularly summarized combining DT, business process and impact on SC performance.Findings: A unique analytical perspective provided represents an important evolution when trying to organize the current literature on SC management. The widely used DTs in the practices and the most considered business processes and impacts are highlighted and described. The three-dimensional conceptual framework is graphically represented to allow for the emergence of the best combinations of DT, business process and impact on SC performance. These combinations suggest the most promising areas for the implementation of the emerging practices for SC digitalization and unphysicalization. Additional findings identify and define the most important contexts in which Big Data contributes to SC performance.Originality/value: The research methodology used is offering progress through which to systemize the current practices as well as detect the potential of digitalization and unphysicalization under the three-dimensional conceptual framework. The paper provides a structured proposal for promising future research directions, assuming that the five research gaps as findings of this research could be the basis for prescriptions, as well as a future research agenda and theory development. Moreover, this research contributes to current managerial issues concerning SC management, referred to data and information management, efficiency and productivity of SC processes, market performance, SC relationship management and risk management in SC.

Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between the openness of firms and their innovation and financial performances. Design/methodology/approach: – In order to investigate such relationships, data on inbound and outbound open innovation (OI) processes and performances of 110 worldwide top research and development (R & D) spending bio-pharmaceutical companies are collected via the consolidated annual reports and the PATSTAT database. The time period of the analysis is 2008-2012. Findings: – Regarding innovation performances, R & D productivity and revenues to patents ratio decrease with openness, whilst patents growth is not influenced by OI adoption. As to financial performances, sales growth exhibits a positive trend with openness, while operating profit and turnover decrease with OI adoption. Particularly, an inverted U-relationship with inbound and a U-shape one with outbound are observed as of operating profit. Research limitations/implications: – The study adds to the knowledge about the effect of openness on firms’ performances, a topic of increasing interest to academics, managers and policy makers. Both inbound and outbound facets of the phenomenon are taken into account. Practical implications: – Understanding how openness affects performances enables more informed decision making by managers, leading to a more effective use of OI activities. Originality/value: – The work provides new insights as to what “being open” means for a company, gauging both inbound and outbound transactions after a pecuniary perspective. Employing objective and continuous measures, the relevance of OI for the whole business of firms can be identified.

Digital technologies could be key to solving several open issues in the context of supply chain management (SCM) and sustainable development. The purpose of this article is to investigate the linkage between digital technologies and sustainable practices in SCM. Through a systematic literature review, the article aims to identify which technologies favour sustainable emerging practices considering the triple bottom line (3BL) perspective. In particular, the following 11 technologies were considered: 3D printing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, computing, digital applications, geospatial technologies, Internet of Things, immersive environments, open and crowd-based platforms, proximity technologies and robotics. For the purpose of this research, 5011 peer-reviewed scientific articles were analysed and a comprehensive overview of the use of digital technologies in SCM to favour sustainable emerging practices was proposed. Therefore, four indices that measure the environmental, social, economic and total 3BL sustainability of each technology were used to assess sustainable emerging practices. This study could be useful for both academics and practitioners. For the former, it provides a comprehensive understanding of the application of digital technologies in sustainable emerging practices for SCM. It highlights potential research gaps by proposing scenarios of future research developments. For the latter, the article aims to identify opportunities for the implementation of digital technologies within own company to improve operations management and, at the same time, promote sustainable development.

Digital technologies have the potential to support achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Existing scientific literature lacks a comprehensive analysis of the triple link: “digital technologies – different industry sectors – SDGs”. By systematically analyzing extant literature, 1098 sustainable business practices have been collected from 578 papers, using 11 digital technologies in 17 industries to achieve the 17 SDGs. For instance, find that artificial intelligence can be used to achieve affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12) as well as to address climate change (SDG 13). Further, geospatial technologies may be applied in the agricultural industry to reduce hunger in various domains (SDG 2), to foster good health and well‐being (SDG 3), to improve the availability of clean water and sanitation facilities (SDG 6), raise awareness on responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), and to safeguard life on land (SDG 15), among other insights.

The growing attention to emerging technologies has raised several doubts regarding the sustainability aspects. Among the new technologies, blockchain has laid the foundations for a revolution in the financial field but also in the energy, tourism, medical, industrial and supply chains sectors. Through a systematic literature review, 37 documents were analyzed to describe the sustainable aspects generated using blockchain in supply chains. Therefore, the results achieved provide two levels of analysis. The former highlights the impact of the adoption of blockchain in supply chains based on the three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, economic and social. The latter shows the positive and negative impacts of each form of sustainability. The purpose of the work is to summarize the current state of the art in order to propose a future development agenda based on the need to simulate and define a measurability for each dimension of sustainability. Finally, the study provides a broad overview of practical and managerial implications for entrepreneurs and researchers. On the one hand, the work shows how the use of blockchain improves the profits and reputation of companies. On the other hand, it highlights several research gaps to be investigated and considered by researchers.