Digitally-enabled sustainable supply chains in the 21st century: A review and a research agenda

While the potential benefits of integrating digital technologies and supply chain management have been widely reported, less is known concerning the current state-of-the-art literature on big data-driven sustainable supply chains. Therefore, this study aims to systematise published studies which address the implications of big data for sustainable supply chain management. Through a systematic literature review, this work makes three significant contributions: (a) it provides an overview of extant literature on this topic in recent years; (b) it proposes seven gaps in the literature in order to foster future investigations on big data-driven sustainable supply chains; (c) it offers four lessons for business practitioners aiming to use big data for sustainable supply chain practices. These lessons suggest that: developing big data analytics capability has to become a business priority in order to effectively build competitive sustainable supply chains; big data has benefits for each of the dimensions of the triple-bottom-line in supply chains; the implementation of big data for sustainability in supply chains presents some challenges for firms; the development of complementary organizational capabilities is needed to overcome challenges and facilitate the benefits of big data technology for sustainable supply chain management. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.