Impacts of Digital Technologies on Supply Chains: First Results from a Systematic Literature Review

In the current competitive era supply chains (SCs) need to access real-time data and information to be more flexible and integrated. In such a way a higher customer service level and an increased market share has to be achieved to guarantee competitivity. The advent of digital technologies of Industry 4.0 can assist SC members to connect and make it possible to share critical data quickly and safely. To this end, it is required to deeply investigate how digital technologies can impact the different SC areas. Therefore, the present work discusses the first results of a comprehensive Systematic Literature Review (SLR) aiming at understanding how digital technologies change SC behaviour. Cloud Computing, Big Data Analytics, and Blockchain are here selected since they are among those technologies that are potentially most able to make connectivity throughout the SC. The paper presents and discusses multiple classifications of the available literature for each technology in various relevant supply Chain Management (SCM) aspects. The outcomes of this taxonomy pave the way for academicians to assess the benefits and limitations of the selected digital technologies and illustrate gaps for using them in SCM. Also, for practitioners, the present work assists SC’s decision-makers in formulating the appropriate investment strategies in the selected digital technologies. Future research will be devoted to complete the SLR by exploring other relevant technologies.