IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v206y2024ics0040162524003330.html

Technology adoption in socially sustainable supply chain management: Towards an integrated conceptual framework

Author

Listed:
  • Jiang, Mengqi
  • Jia, Fu
  • Chen, Lujie
  • Xing, Xinjie

Abstract

This study aims to systematically review existing literature on digital technology adoption for socially sustainable supply chain management (SSSCM) and propose a theoretical framework that outlines the central concepts. A content analysis-based systematic literature review approach was adopted to analyze 49 articles published from 2017 to 2024. The findings of this study identify critical antecedents, barriers, practices, enablers, and outcomes of digital technology adoption for SSSCM. The proposed conceptual model based on technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework and diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory captures these relationships among the identified factors and provides insights into how they can support the development of a socially sustainable supply chain. Furthermore, this study explores the potential positive and negative effects of technology adoption for SSSCM. It highlights the opportunities and challenges that arise from using digital technology in SSSCM, such as the emergence of Industry 4.0 and the need to ensure the ethical use of technology. This study is the first comprehensive review of the role of digital technology in SSSCM. The suggested framework offers guidance for upcoming research in this field, outlining the key areas that require further investigation.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiang, Mengqi & Jia, Fu & Chen, Lujie & Xing, Xinjie, 2024. "Technology adoption in socially sustainable supply chain management: Towards an integrated conceptual framework," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:206:y:2024:i:c:s0040162524003330
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123537
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162524003330
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123537?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Siltori, Patricia F.S. & Anholon, Rosley & Rampasso, Izabela Simon & Quelhas, Osvaldo L.G. & Santa-Eulalia, Luis A. & Leal Filho, Walter, 2021. "Industry 4.0 and corporate sustainability: An exploratory analysis of possible impacts in the Brazilian context," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Sara Saberi & Mahtab Kouhizadeh & Joseph Sarkis & Lejia Shen, 2019. "Blockchain technology and its relationships to sustainable supply chain management," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(7), pages 2117-2135, April.
    3. Rodríguez-Espíndola, Oscar & Cuevas-Romo, Ana & Chowdhury, Soumyadeb & Díaz-Acevedo, Natalie & Albores, Pavel & Despoudi, Stella & Malesios, Chrisovalantis & Dey, Prasanta, 2022. "The role of circular economy principles and sustainable-oriented innovation to enhance social, economic and environmental performance: Evidence from Mexican SMEs," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    4. Choi, Hyoung-Yong & Park, Junyoung, 2022. "Do data-driven CSR initiatives improve CSR performance? The importance of big data analytics capability," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    5. Andreas Thöni & Alfred Taudes & A Min Tjoa, 2018. "An information system for assessing the likelihood of child labor in supplier locations leveraging Bayesian networks and text mining," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 443-476, May.
    6. Xiaomin Yu, 2008. "Impacts of Corporate Code of Conduct on Labor Standards: A Case Study of Reebok’s Athletic Footwear Supplier Factory in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(3), pages 513-529, September.
    7. Grybauskas, Andrius & Stefanini, Alessandro & Ghobakhloo, Morteza, 2022. "Social sustainability in the age of digitalization: A systematic literature Review on the social implications of industry 4.0," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    8. Julia Keenan & Deanna Kemp & John Owen, 2019. "Corporate responsibility and the social risk of new mining technologies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 752-760, July.
    9. Daniel Kiel & Julian M. Müller & Christian Arnold & Kai-Ingo Voigt, 2017. "Sustainable Industrial Value Creation: Benefits And Challenges Of Industry 4.0," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(08), pages 1-34, December.
    10. Wei Guan & Wenhong Ding & Bobo Zhang & Jerome Verny & Rubin Hao, 2023. "Do supply chain related factors enhance the prediction accuracy of blockchain adoption? A machine learning approach," Post-Print hal-04063438, HAL.
    11. Adriana Barbeito‐Caamaño & Ricardo Chalmeta, 2020. "Using big data to evaluate corporate social responsibility and sustainable development practices," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(6), pages 2831-2848, November.
    12. Simone Pizzi & Andrea Caputo & Andrea Venturelli & Fabio Caputo, 2022. "Embedding and managing blockchain in sustainability reporting: a practical framework," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(3), pages 545-567, February.
    13. Shet, Sateesh V. & Pereira, Vijay, 2021. "Proposed managerial competencies for Industry 4.0 – Implications for social sustainability," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    14. Viswanath Venkatesh & Hillol Bala, 2012. "Adoption and Impacts of Interorganizational Business Process Standards: Role of Partnering Synergy," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 1131-1157, December.
    15. Guan, Wei & Ding, Wenhong & Zhang, Bobo & Verny, Jerome & Hao, Rubin, 2023. "Do supply chain related factors enhance the prediction accuracy of blockchain adoption? A machine learning approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    16. Christ, Katherine L & V Helliar, Christine, 2021. "Blockchain technology and modern slavery: Reducing deceptive recruitment in migrant worker populations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 112-120.
    17. repec:eme:mrn000:01409170410784185 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Dubey, Rameshwar & Gunasekaran, Angappa & Childe, Stephen J. & Papadopoulos, Thanos & Luo, Zongwei & Wamba, Samuel Fosso & Roubaud, David, 2019. "Can big data and predictive analytics improve social and environmental sustainability?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 534-545.
    19. Mastrocinque, Ernesto & Ramírez, F. Javier & Honrubia-Escribano, Andrés & Pham, Duc T., 2022. "Industry 4.0 enabling sustainable supply chain development in the renewable energy sector: A multi-criteria intelligent approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    20. Ghadimi, Pezhman & Ghassemi Toosi, Farshad & Heavey, Cathal, 2018. "A multi-agent systems approach for sustainable supplier selection and order allocation in a partnership supply chain," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(1), pages 286-301.
    21. Badri Ahmadi, Hadi & Kusi-Sarpong, Simonov & Rezaei, Jafar, 2017. "Assessing the social sustainability of supply chains using Best Worst Method," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 99-106.
    22. Kouhizadeh, Mahtab & Saberi, Sara & Sarkis, Joseph, 2021. "Blockchain technology and the sustainable supply chain: Theoretically exploring adoption barriers," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    23. Naghshineh, Bardia & Ribeiro, André & Jacinto, Celeste & Carvalho, Helena, 2021. "Social impacts of additive manufacturing: A stakeholder-driven framework," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    24. Jiang, Mengqi & Chen, Lujie & Blome, Constantin & Jia, Fu, 2023. "Digital technology adoption for modern slavery risk mitigation in supply chains: An institutional perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    25. Chen, Lujie & Zhao, Xiande & Tang, Ou & Price, Lydia & Zhang, Shanshan & Zhu, Wenwen, 2017. "Supply chain collaboration for sustainability: A literature review and future research agenda," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 73-87.
    26. Wu, Ing-Long & Chen, Jian-Liang, 2014. "A stage-based diffusion of IT innovation and the BSC performance impact: A moderator of technology–organization–environment," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 76-90.
    27. Monica M. Sharif & Farshad Ghodoosi, 2022. "The Ethics of Blockchain in Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(4), pages 1009-1025, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hayat, Khizar & Zhang, Qingyu & Sousa, Maria Jose & Husnain, Mudassir & Shahzad, Khuram, 2025. "Blockchain-powered drone deliveries: Embedded governance mechanisms for reducing uncertainty and enhancing consumer behavioral intentions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    2. Khan, Imran & Rehman, Mohd Ziaur & Khan, Inayat, 2025. "Optimizing natural resource management and global supply chains through digital innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    3. Drăgan, George Bogdan & Ben Arfi, Wissal & Tiberius, Victor & Ammari, Aymen & Khvatova, Tatiana, 2025. "Navigating the green wave: Understanding behavioral antecedents of sustainable cryptocurrency investment," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    4. Khan, Ali Nawaz & Khan, Naseer Abbas, 2024. "The gig economy's secret weapon: ChatGPT," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    5. Xiaole Han & Leong-Mow Gooi, 2025. "Multi-Level Determinants of Sustainable Blockchain Technology Adoption in SCM: Individual, Organisational, and Societal Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-56, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shahzad, Khuram & Zhang, Qingyu & Ashfaq, Muhammad & Zafar, Abaid Ullah & Ahmad, Bilal, 2024. "Pre- to post-adoption of blockchain technology in supply chain management: Influencing factors and the role of firm size," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    2. Zhang, Ying & Tavalaei, M. Mahdi & Parry, Glenn & Zhou, Peng, 2024. "Evolution or involution? A systematic literature review of organisations' blockchain adoption factors," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    3. Chen, Yuan & Feng, Yunting & Lai, Kee-Hung & Zhu, Qinghua, 2025. "Value of blockchain for scope 3 carbon disclosure: The moderating role of data processing technologies," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    4. Rehman, Anisur & Behera, Rajat Kumar & Islam, Md Saiful & Elahi, Yasir Arafat & Abbasi, Faraz Ahmad & Imtiaz, Asma, 2024. "Drivers of metaverse adoption for enhancing marketing capabilities of retail SMEs," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    5. Abbate, Stefano & Centobelli, Piera & Cerchione, Roberto, 2023. "From Fast to Slow: An Exploratory Analysis of Circular Business Models in the Italian Apparel Industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    6. Su, Dan & Zhang, Lijun & Peng, Hua & Saeidi, Parvaneh & Tirkolaee, Erfan Babaee, 2023. "Technical challenges of blockchain technology for sustainable manufacturing paradigm in Industry 4.0 era using a fuzzy decision support system," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    7. Büttgen, Marion & al.,, 2021. "Blockchain in Service Management and Service Research - Developing a Research Agenda and Managerial Implications," SMR - Journal of Service Management Research, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 5(2), pages 71-102.
    8. Davies, Jennifer & Sharifi, Hossein & Lyons, Andrew & Forster, Rick & Elsayed, Omar Khaled Shokry Mohamed, 2024. "Non-fungible tokens: The missing ingredient for sustainable supply chains in the metaverse age?," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    9. Ashish Adholiya, 2025. "Evaluating the Impact of Digitalization on Circular Economy Growth: Insights from Structural Equation Modelling," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 5(6), pages 4889-4918, November.
    10. Moslem Alimohammadlou & Saeed Alinejad, 2025. "Challenges of blockchain implementation in SMEs’ supply chains: an integrated IT2F-BWM and IT2F-DEMATEL method," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 907-949, April.
    11. Dou, Guowei & Wei, Kun & Sun, Tingting & Ma, Lijun, 2024. "Blockchain technology adoption in a supply chain: Channel leaderships and environmental implications," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    12. Li, Ying & Dai, Jing & Cui, Li, 2020. "The impact of digital technologies on economic and environmental performance in the context of industry 4.0: A moderated mediation model," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    13. Seyyed-Alireza Radmanesh & Alireza Haji & Omid Fatahi Valilai, 2023. "Blockchain-Based Architecture for a Sustainable Supply Chain in Cloud Architecture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-19, June.
    14. Kirti Nayal & Rakesh D. Raut & Balkrishna E. Narkhede & Pragati Priyadarshinee & Gajanan B. Panchal & Vidyadhar V. Gedam, 2023. "Antecedents for blockchain technology-enabled sustainable agriculture supply chain," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 327(1), pages 293-337, August.
    15. Aditi S. Saha & Rakesh D. Raut & Vinay Surendra Yadav & Abhijit Majumdar, 2022. "Blockchain Changing the Outlook of the Sustainable Food Supply Chain to Achieve Net Zero?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-21, December.
    16. Pattanayak, Sirsha & Ramkumar, M. & Goswami, Mohit & Rana, Nripendra P., 2024. "Blockchain technology and supply chain performance: The role of trust and relational capabilities," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 271(C).
    17. Woon Leong Lin, 2026. "The Influence of Circular Economy on Firm Orientation Toward Sustainable Development Goals: The Moderating Role of Technological Innovation in the Automotive Industry," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(2), pages 1596-1621, April.
    18. Mohammadreza Akbari & John L. Hopkins, 2022. "Digital technologies as enablers of supply chain sustainability in an emerging economy," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 689-710, December.
    19. Broccardo, Laura & Zicari, Adrián & Jabeen, Fauzia & Bhatti, Zeeshan A., 2023. "How digitalization supports a sustainable business model: A literature review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    20. Liu, Weihua & Long, Shangsong & Wei, Shuang, 2022. "Correlation mechanism between smart technology and smart supply chain innovation performance: A multi-case study from China's companies with Physical Internet," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:206:y:2024:i:c:s0040162524003330. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.