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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between technology orientations and export performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

A quantitative research design was adopted for this study. The paper formulates hypotheses from the literature review. These hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling with data collected from 231 SMEs in Uganda. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23 and AMOS.

The findings of this study showed technology orientation has a positive and significant relationship with the performance of Ugandan SMEs and that supply chain agility moderates technology orientation and export performance.

The study discusses the findings, advances limitations and managerial implications. It also suggests future research avenues. It proposes some recommendations to help Ugandan SMEs to form flexible supply chains, use the latest technology and create strong relationship ties with their partners in the supply chain.

The study suggests that managers of Ugandan SMEs should use the latest technology in production, marketing, logistics and supply chain management which will enable them to respond quickly to customer tastes and preferences leading to higher levels of export performance.

This study contributes to the literature on strategic management showing the reliability of scales used and the confirmatory of the factor structure. This study shows that in strategic management technology, orientation is critical in increasing export performance. This study has extended the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities theories.

The aim of this study is to examine the role and capabilities of fourth party logistics (4PL) in the supply chain agility and firm performance. In addition to this, the relationship between supply chain agility and firm performance is also examined. This study aims to fulfill the gap in the literature about the studies on the relationship between 4PL capability dimensions, supply chain agility and business performance.

The study uses survey data from 58 senior executives and managers in the logistics and supply chain functions from 4PL service providers' customer firms in Turkey. The results are structural equation modeling using SmartPLS software. Snowball sampling method was used to collect survey data.

This study shows that integrator and supply chain infomediary are appropriate practices for mediating the impact of agile supply chain strategies, on firm performance. For supply chain practitioners, results indicate that firms benefit greatly if they consider the outsourcing, such as a 4PL partnership, in conjunction with their supply chain strategy.

Time, cost and the presence of businesses located in different cities across Turkey in the sample of study and the existence of the tendency of enterprises not to participate in the research can be stated as the limitations of this study.

In the literature, studies on 4PL have been conducted in different fields which can be categorized as follows: 4PL solution development, reasons that facilitate and prevent the design and implementation of 4PL, scope of 4PL service delivery and profit and risk sharing from the structure of 4PL networks. Briefly, the studies focus on conceptualizing and differentiating of 4PL from 3PL before reaching a common definition. Motivation of this study is to fulfill the gap of literature about supply chain agility, firm performance relationship and mediation role of 4PL skill dimensions.

Blockchain technology was developed to synchronize the data and transactions over the supply chain network and connected nodes. This paper aims to show how blockchain technology can enhance flexibility and agility in supply chain operations. The integration of blockchain and other recently developed technology can help deal with supply chain uncertainties and other challenges being faced by the industry.

Through an extensive literature review of existing research papers and conversation with supply chain managers, barriers and challenges in the supply chain were identified. Some elements were researched of blockchain technology that can be used to resolve some challenges. Blockchain technology and other technologies integration is developed for implementation in supply chain for better visibility and efficiency of supply chain.

The challenges in the supply chain are categorized, and the solution is given through the integration of blockchain and other technologies like Internet of Things and artificial intelligence. The integration shows the execution of tasks through blockchain and various technologies in supply chain.

Blockchain in supply chain is finding its strong place in India when compared to developing nations. There is a need for technology experts, supply chain managers and consumers to understand blockchain’s importance. Challenges faced by industries to use blockchain may be analyzed further with real-life industry case studies.

This research helps enterprises in successful execution of smart technologies in their supply chains. This research helps enterprises in successful execution of smart technologies in their supply chains. Managers and practitioners may use the models developed in real-time implementation. The technologies are described in detail to help the practitioners select the best suitable for their organization.

Digital supply chains are finding the way in industries due to lean and efficient nature. It is beneficial to use the smart technologies to make supply chain green and sustainable.

The implementation of the digital supply chain and its challenges are discussed in the research paper. This will work as a platform for research in the area of technologies for supply chain.

Each individual needs to be vaccinated to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the shortest possible time. However, the vaccine distribution with an already strained supply chain in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) will not be effective enough to vaccinate all the population in stipulated time. The purpose of this paper is to show that there is a need to revolutionize the vaccine supply chain (VSC) by overcoming the challenges of sustainable vaccine distribution.

An integrated lean, agile and green (LAG) framework is proposed to overcome the challenges of the sustainable vaccine supply chain (SVSC). A hybrid best worst method (BWM)–Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking According to COmpromise Solution (MARCOS) methodology is designed to analyze the challenges and solutions.

The analysis shows that vaccine wastage is the most critical challenge for SVSC, and the coordination among stakeholders is the most significant solution followed by effective management support.

The result of the analysis can help the health care organizations (HCOs) to manage the VSC. The effective vaccination in stipulated time will help control the further spread of the virus, which will result in the normalcy of business and availability of livelihood for millions of people.

To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study to explore sustainability in VSC by considering the environmental and social impact of vaccination. The LAG-based framework is also a new approach in VSC to find the solution for existing challenges.

Digital supply chains require nascent technologies like blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT). There is a need to develop a roadmap for the implementation of these technologies, as they require a huge amount of resources and infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the challenges of implementing blockchain-IoT integrated architecture in the green supply chain and develop strategies for the same.

After a thorough literature survey of Scopus-indexed journals and books, 37 barriers were identified, which were then brought down to 15 barriers after confirming with industry and academic experts using the Delphi method. Using the total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) method and cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) analysis, the barriers were modeled, and finally, strategies were formulated using a concept map to handle the barriers in the blockchain-IoT integrated architecture for a green supply chain.

This paper presents the research on barriers that can be considered for incorporating blockchain and IoT in the green supply chain. It was found from the TISM model that environmental concerns are Level-1 barriers and need to be addressed by developing appropriate technology and allocating funds for the same. An integrated ecosystem with blockchain and IoT is developed.

The focus of this study was on the challenges of blockchain and IoT; hence, it is required to extend the research and find challenges for different industries and also analyze the criteria using other multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. Further research is required for the integration of blockchain-IoT with supply chain functions.

The transformation of a traditional supply chain into a green supply chain is possible with the integration of technologies. This research work and the strategies developed are useful to managers and practitioners working on technology implementation. Planning resources and addressing key barriers is possible with the concept maps and architecture developed.

Green supply chain management (SCM) is gaining importance in industry as well as the academic sector due to government Policies and norms worldwide for reducing emissions and encouraging environment-friendly production systems. Incorporating blockchain and IoT in a green supply chain will further digitize and increase transparency in supply chains.

We have done a categorization of all barriers based on the expert survey by academicians and industry experts from industries in India. The concept map helps in identifying possible solutions for the challenges and initiatives to be taken for the smooth integration of technologies in the green supply chain.

In the recent dynamic market, supply chain disruptions are rapidly increasing with varied customer demand, technological changes, uncertain pandemic events etc. To overcome the unexpected disruptions, supply chain of each business should be resilient and pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC) is no exception. Motivated by the challenges and unexpected pandemic disruptions, this paper aims to examine the performance indicators (PIs) of the resilient PSC and to predict the resilience level for a certain time period in the context of Bangladesh.

The aim of this paper presents a structured framework based on the Delphi method, fuzzy DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) and system dynamics (SD). The proposed methodology was validated using expert's inputs from the relevant field in Bangladesh. This study reveals the influential relationships of indicators and resilience level using fuzzy DEMATEL and SD to improve the resiliency.

Findings revealed that “Supply chain risk orientation”, “Visibility”, “Flexibility”, “Agility in supply chain” and “Collaboration” are the top five influential performance indicators for resilient PSC. The cause and effect relationship found that “IT capability”, “Flexibility”, “Supply chain network design”, “Resource availability”, “Supply chain risk orientation” and “Velocity” were in cause category which play a vital role for establishing resilient supply chain. SD approach has developed a model for predicting the resilience level of the supply chain.

This work is one of the initial contributions in the literature that has targeted on the identification and analysis of the significant PIs and predicting the resilience level of the PSC.

This study applies bibliometric analysis to explore the evolution of the research paradigm of agility related to management and organisations.

Authors prepared a quantitative study of the review of selected articles using co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling. Based on the bibliometric analyses, the evolution of the agility field (past, present, and future of agility research) was prepared.

Emergent themes focus on the importance of agility in interpreting organisational responses in the context of issues as diverse as information systems and business intelligence systems, market orientation, strategic alignment and social computing. Future research needs to focus on digitisation in conjunction with informatisation, an important topic for creating a new organisational culture and knowledge management through increased collaboration between humans and machines.

As the authors are aware, this study is one of the first to choose to show the overall development and importance of agility through quantitative bibliometric methods used to assess the value and contribution of scientific productivity and its impact on development.

The aim of this paper is to review metrics and develop a framework for measuring leagile supply chain. Metrics that are applicable in the lean, agile and leagile strategies are identified in the literature and are then combined into a framework that can reflect both agile and lean strategies – the leagile supply strategy.

This work is based on the systematic literature review. Literature was collected, then lean and agile metrics were extracted, analysed, counted and grouped into the framework. Findings are compared against literature on leagile supply chain.

Findings indicate that there are sets of metrics specific to lean strategy, such as are process-focused, cost, productivity, inventory and delivery-based metrics, and specific to agile such as flexibility, responsiveness, information sharing and cooperation. There are also metrics common for both strategies; they are related to time, quality and customer satisfaction. Lean measures are tangible and focused on internal processes and products, while agile measures are targeted at external environment.

The framework could be used by practitioners as a starting point for performance system design.

There is a need to stop looking at lean and agile as separate and distinct supply strategies. Results of this research indicate that lean and agile are interlinked, both are focusing on customer satisfaction and quality. Applying a proposed set of metrics enables to design supply chain measurement system that reflects both strategies to measure leagile supply chain. The framework could be used by practitioners as a starting point for performance system design.

A globalized world demands proactive tactics from organizational supply chains. Companies should be capable of mitigating the impacts of natural and manmade disasters, which requires that they understand their stages of maturity and resilience. This study develops a theoretical model of the relationship between maturity and resilience, seeking to guide decision-making about aligning these two concepts.

A systematic literature review was conducted to identify the constructs that form the basis for our proposed maturity and resilience model.

The authors identified the key constructs related to maturity and resilience by analyzing the existing literature and selected 13 constructs and 3 maturity stages to construct our maturity and resilience model.

This research contributes to the supply chain management literature, especially that involving the themes of maturity and resilience. It can encourage research to develop future empirical research in the field to validate and overcome the limitations of the initial model the authors propose.

The authors’ proposed model supports supply chain managers in establishing strategies to increase resilience based on the maturity of the chains they manage, enabling them to face crises such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

The model presents a holistic view of maturity and resilience in supply chains contributing to supply chain theory by examining the alignment between the two themes.

While it is known that digital transformation facilitates data flow in supply chains, its importance on green supply chain management (GSCM) has not been investigated concisely. This paper aims to expand the theory of digital transformation in GSCM by investigating the interconnections between these concepts and providing an integrative view of a smart green supply chain management (Smart GSCM).

This adopts a configurational perspective on digital transformation and supply chain management (SCM) to investigate the different dimensions of Smart GSCM and their contribution to green performance. Therefore, this paper analyzes data from 473 manufacturing companies using regression techniques.

The results show how smart supply chain contributes to green performance through managing green relationships (external GSCM activities) and establishing green operations (internal GSCM activities). Furthermore, this paper finds partial mediating effects for external and internal GSCM activities on green performance. These findings show that smart supply chain (i.e. digital transformation strategy and front-end technologies, supported by several back-end technologies) is directly associated with higher levels of GSCM. It is specifically associated with one of the internal dimensions of green operations, namely, green purchasing activities. Hence, the findings suggest that digital transformation alone is insufficient to achieve green performance, needing a GSCM configuration to mediate this effect.

This study calls attention to how managers should integrate these at least three different perspectives of SCM: digital transformation, external relationships and internal operations to increase green performance.

As the main contribution, this study provides a configurational and holistic understanding of the different dimensions and mechanisms in Smart GSCM.