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Regardless of the diverse research on big data analytics (BDA) across different supply chains, little attention has been paid to exploit this information across service supply chains. The healthcare supply chains, where supply chain operations consume the second highest expenditures, have not completely attained the potential gains from data analytics. So, this paper explores the challenges of BDA at various levels of healthcare supply chains.

Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), this research explores the various challenges of big data at organizational and operational level of different nodes in healthcare supply chains. To demonstrate the links among supply chain nodes, the authors have used a supplier-input-process-output-customer (SIPOC) chart to list healthcare suppliers, inputs (such as employees) supplied and used by the main healthcare processes, outputs (products and services) of these processes, and customers (patients and community).

Using thematic analysis, the authors were able to identify numerous challenges and commonalities among these challenges for the case of healthcare supply chains across United Arab Emirates (UAE). An applicable exploration on organizational (Socio-technical) and operational challenges to BDA can enable healthcare managers to acclimate efficient and effective strategies.

The identified common socio-technical and operational challenges could be verified, and their impacts on the sustainable performance of various supply chains should be explored using formal research methods.

This research advances the body of literature on BDA in healthcare supply chains in that (1) it presents a structured approach for exploring the challenges from various stakeholders of healthcare chain; (2) it presents the most common challenges of big data across the chain and finally (3) it uses the context of UAE where government is focusing on medical tourism in the coming years.

Originality of this work stems from the fact that most of the previous academic research in this area has focused on technology perspectives, a clear understanding of the managerial and strategic implications and challenges of big data is still missing in the literature.

The purpose of this research is to determine how supply chain management (SCM) might be less affected by COVID-19 by using innovative technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), eco-friendly corporate practices and other digital advancements. It strongly emphasizes the use of technology to improve supply networks’ and Omani firms’ performance.

Using a mixed-methods research strategy, this study integrates both qualitative and quantitative approaches. It involves a survey and interviews with supply chain and IT managers from various industries in Oman to gather data and evaluate the impact of technology on SCM.

This study finds that IoT capabilities, smart technologies (STs) and green practices significantly mitigate COVID-19 impacts on SCM. The performance of the supply chain and the business are both improved by these technologies’ positive effects on integrating various supply chain elements, such as suppliers, internal processes and customer relations.

The main constraint of this study is its concentration on businesses in Oman, potentially restricting the applicability of its findings to broader contexts. Future studies could investigate similar frameworks across various geographic and industry settings.

The findings suggest that incorporating STs into SCM is crucial for enhancing operational efficiency and resilience against disruptions such as COVID-19. This offers valuable insights for managers and policymakers in adopting technology-driven strategies for SCM.

This study highlights the significant role of technology in sustaining supply chains during pandemics, thereby supporting economic stability and societal well-being. It underscores the importance of technological advancements in maintaining supply chain continuity in challenging times.

By empirically examining the effect of emerging technologies on enhancing SCM in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically in the Oman market, this research makes a unique contribution to the body of knowledge.

Franchising contributes significantly to national economies but is overlooked in supply chain literature. This study aims to contribute to the franchising and supply chain literature by examining how the digitisation of the franchising supply chain improves firm performance.

A single longitudinal case study approach was selected to investigate how a leading coffee brand digitised its franchising supply chain. Resource constraints theory and agency theory provide the theoretical framework. Data collection included both qualitative and quantitative data. Over two years, chronological, supply chain and thematic analyses and interpretation uncovered important findings and developed four research propositions.

Findings show that digitisation can impact performance in eight areas: Resource management, Resource constraints, Efficiency, Business-to-Business (B2B)/Business-To-Customer (B2C) links, Rapid expansion, Risk mitigation, Information asymmetries and Faster supply chain responses. Four digital technologies (advanced analytics, Internet of Things, Autonomous Mobile Robots and B2B e-shop) impacted three franchisor functions (Machine maintenance, Inventory management, Franchisee and end-customer relations). The study develops four research propositions on how digitisation impacts performance in terms of (1) resource monitoring and control, (2) learning and knowledge creation, (3) coordination and collaboration and (4) competition.

Franchising supply chains have been overlooked in the literature; this study provides insights into using resource constraints theory and agency theory complementarily to explain supply chain digitisation and provides actionable practical implications for selecting, implementing and continuously improving Industry 4.0 technologies in franchising supply chains.

Industry 4.0 has put forward a smart perspective on managing supply chain networks and their operations. The current manufacturing system is primarily data-driven. Industries are deploying new emerging technologies in their operations to build a competitive edge in the business environment; however, the true potential of smart manufacturing has not yet been fully unveiled. This research aims to extensively analyse emerging technologies and their interconnection with smart manufacturing in developing smarter supply chains.

This research endeavours to establish a conceptual framework for a smart supply chain. A real case study on a smart factory is conducted to demonstrate the validity of this framework for building smarter supply chains. A comparative analysis is carried out between conventional and smart supply chains to ascertain the advantages of smart supply chains. In addition, a thorough investigation of the several factors needed to transition from smart to smarter supply chains is undertaken.

The integration of smart technology exemplifies the ability to improve the efficiency of supply chain operations. Research findings indicate that transitioning to a smart factory radically enhances productivity, quality assurance, data privacy and labour efficiency. The outcomes of this research will help academic and industrial sectors critically comprehend technological breakthroughs and their applications in smart supply chains.

This study highlights the implications of incorporating smart technologies into supply chain operations, specifically in smart purchasing, smart factory operations, smart warehousing and smart customer performance. A paradigm transition from conventional, smart to smarter supply chains offers a comprehensive perspective on the evolving dynamics in automation, optimisation and manufacturing technology domains, ultimately leading to the emergence of Industry 5.0.

This study aims to evaluate the enhancement in prosthetic supply chain capabilities resulting from the implementation of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies. The study presents an emerging model outlining the key areas that undergo changes when integrating 3D printing technologies into the prosthetic supply chain.

Employing a qualitative approach, data were collected through field observations and 31 in-depth interviews conducted within various Jordanian organizations associated with the prosthetic industry and 3D printing technologies.

The findings suggest that the adoption of 3D printing technologies improves the prosthetic supply chain’s capabilities in terms of customization, responsiveness, innovation, environmental sustainability, cost minimization and patient empowerment. The study sheds light on the specific areas affected in the prosthetic supply chain following the adoption of 3D printing technologies, emphasizing the overall improvement in supply chain capabilities within the prosthetic industry.

This study provides recommendations for governmental bodies and prosthetic organizations to maximize the benefits derived from the use of 3D printing technologies.

This study contributes as the first of its kind in exploring the impact of 3D printing technology adoption in the Jordanian prosthetic industry, elucidating the effects on the supply chain and identifying challenges for decision-makers in an emerging market context.

This study aims to optimize the levels of factors for a green supply chain (GSC) while concurrently gaining valuable insights into the dynamic interrelationships among several factors, leading to reductions in CO₂ emissions and the maximization of the average service level, thereby enhancing overall supply chain performance.

Response surface methodology (RSM) is employed as a technique for multiple response optimization. This study uses a supply chain simulation model that includes decision variables related to the level of inventory control parameters and vehicle capacity. The desirability approach is adopted to achieve optimization objectives by focusing on minimizing CO₂ emissions and maximizing service levels while simultaneously determining the optimum levels of considered decision variables.

The high R² values of 97.38% for CO₂ and 97.28% for service level, along with adjusted R² values reasonably close to predicted values, affirm the models' capability to predict responses accurately. Key significant model terms for CO₂ encompassed reorder point, order up to quantity, vehicle capacity, and their interaction effects, while service level is notably influenced by reorder point, order up to quantity, and their interaction effects. The study successfully achieved a high level of desirability value of %99.1 and the validated performance levels confirmed that the results fall within the prediction interval.

This study introduces a metamodel framework designed to optimize various design parameters for a GSC combining discrete event simulation (DES) and RSM in the form of a simulation optimization model. In contrast to the literature, the current study offers an exhaustive and in-depth analysis of the structural elements of the supply chain, particularly the inventory control parameters and vehicle capacity, which are crucial for comprehending its performance and environmental impact.

During the supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19, logistics service providers (LSPs) have invested heavily in innovations to enhance their supply chain resilience capabilities. However, only little attention has been given so far to the nature of these innovative capabilities, in particular to what extent LSPs were able to repurpose capabilities to build supply chain resilience. In response, using the concept of exaptation, this study identifies to what extent LSPs have discovered and utilized latent functions to build supply chain resilience capabilities during a disruptive event of high impact and low probability.

This conceptual paper uses a theory building approach to advance the literature on supply chain resilience by delineating the relationship between exaptation and supply chain resilience capabilities in the context of COVID-19. To do so, we propose two frameworks: (1) to clarify the role of exaptation for supply chain resilience capabilities and (2) to depict four different exaptation dimensions for the supply chain resilience capabilities of LSPs.

We illustrate how LSPs have repurposed original functions into new products or services to build their supply chain resilience capabilities and combine the two critical concepts of exploitation and exploration capabilities to identify four exaptation dimensions in the context of LSPs, namely impeded exaptation, configurative exaptation, transformative exaptation and ambidextrous exaptation.

As one of the first studies linking exaptation and supply chain resilience, the framework and subsequent categorization advance the understanding of how LSPs can build exapt-driven supply chain resilience capabilities and synthesize the current literature to offer conceptual clarity regarding the varied implications and outcomes linked to the repurposing of capabilities.

The healthcare sector increasingly recognizes how critical sustainable supply chains are to lowering environmental impact, boosting productivity and satisfying public expectations for morally and responsibly provided healthcare. Consequently, the current study aims to thoroughly evaluate the literature on the sustainability of healthcare supply chain management.

The paper uses a systematic literature review (SLR) technique and bibliometric review to examine the benefactions of different authors, nations and organizations to healthcare sustainability through bibliometric and network analyses.

The study concludes that the healthcare industry may advance sustainability on all levels by incorporating technology into the fundamentals of sustainability. Patient care is given priority in this proposed approach, which can also help healthcare executives create strategies that support efficient healthcare supply chains.

The research study can serve as a basis for future investigations into additional healthcare management domains, where integrating a sustainable supply chain can yield superior and observable results and bridge deficiencies in management protocols.

Using bibliometric visualization, this study shows the relevance of sustainability in the healthcare supply chain. By identifying its advantages, present-day circumstances, applications and prospective future research fields, the study took up the review and relevance of sustainability in many parts of the healthcare industry.

Extant literature in supply chain management tends to address a portion of the product flow to make food accessible to clients in need. The authors present a broader view of food insecurity and present nuances relevant to appreciate the complexities of dealing with this social problem.

The authors conducted an inductive study to reveal the deep meaning of the context as managers of nonprofit organizations (NPO) define and address food insecurity. The focus was on a delimited geographic area for capturing interactions among NPOs which have not been described previously.

This study describes the role of supply chains collaborating in unexpected ways in the not-for-profit context, leading to interesting insights for the conceptual development of service ecosystems. This is relevant because the solution for the food insecure stems from the orchestration of assistance provided by the many supply chains for social assistance.

The authors introduce two concepts: customer sharing and customer release. Customer sharing enables these supply chains behave like an ecosystem with no focal organization. Customer release is the opposite to customer retention, when the food insecure stops needing assistance.

The authors describe the use of customer-centric measures of success such improved health measured. The solution to food insecurity for an individual is likely to be the result of the orchestration of assistance provided by several supply chains.

The authors started asking who the client is and how the NPOs define food insecurity, leading to discussing contrasts between food access and utilization, between hunger relief and nourishment, between assistance and solution of the problem, and between supply chains and ecosystems.

This research aims to identify, examine and evaluate barriers to the adoption of digital servitization in manufacturing firms in the case of the Sri Lankan manufacturing sector and analyze the inter-relationships among digital servitization barriers.

Based on the comprehensive literature review, 13 barriers were identified. The grey decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (grey-DEMATEL) approach was used to uncover and analyze the relationships among barriers in terms of their overall influence and dependencies.

A prominent barrier to the success of adopting digital servitization in the Sri Lankan manufacturing sector is the lack of digital strategy in developing activities related to the design of digital service packages, organizational structures and processes. Supply chain integration is the most influential factor, which plays an important role in developing a competitive advantage by encouraging innovation process capabilities in servitized companies.

Industry practitioners can develop guidelines for adopting digital servitization practices based on the importance and interdependencies of different barriers and thereby prioritize projects within a program of digital servitization adoption in their organizations.

Research studies on barriers to digital servitization are limited to exploratory nature and have adopted mainly the qualitative approach, such as in-depth interviews. No empirical study has investigated the inter-relationships among digital servitization adoption barriers in the manufacturing sector. This study provides a holistic view of different barriers to the adoption of digital servitization in the manufacturing sector as a basis for developing comprehensive digital servitization strategies to manage and leverage complexity in digital transformation.