Understanding the Role of Digital Technologies in Supply Chain Management of SMEs

Shashank Bansal (), Vikas Kumar (), Archana Kumari () and Evgeny Kuzmin ()
Additional contact information
Shashank Bansal: University of Bristol, Beacon House
Vikas Kumar: Birmingham City University
Archana Kumari: University of the West of England
Evgeny Kuzmin: Russian Academy of Sciences

A chapter in Digital Transformation in Industry, 2023, pp 195-205 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The proliferation of industry 4.0, often known as digital technologies, over the last decade has enabled new business models, the digitalisation of products and services, and the integration of every link in the company’s value chain: product development and innovation, manufacturing, distribution, digital sales, and customer relationship management. This paper aims to magnify and accelerate the impact offered by integrating the most recent advances in the field of supply chain management. Following a qualitative interviewing approach, this paper explores whether digital technologies can enable or enhance and streamline small and medium enterprises (SMEs) digital supply chain performance. This study also reviews potential barriers to digitalising the supply chain and suggests ways to overcome them. The study shows that digital adoption helps organizations improve data security, connectivity with supply chain partners, traceability, and supply and demand management capabilities. Literature review and interviews identified cost savings, responsiveness, quality improvement, and environmental benefits as key factors driving technology adoption. On the contrary, a lack of clearly defined goals, cultural issues, high investment, a shortage of skilled labor and legal uncertainty have been identified as barriers to the successful implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies.

Keywords: Digital technologies; Industry 4.0; Supply chains; Barriers; Enablers; SMEs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:lnichp:978-3-031-30351-7_16

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031303517

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-30351-7_16

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organization from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().