Towards a resilient and sustainable supply chain: bibliometric analysis and systematic review of the literature

Abstract

Faced with the succession of changes and their multidimensional repercussions ( in this instance the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, etc.), the Supply Chain is now obliged to strengthen its resilience through its ability to act quickly and its capacity to adapt to unforeseen and unpredictable disruptions, while taking into account the economic, environmental and social concerns of sustainable development, in order to maintain its performance, and thus acquire a competitive advantage. In this context, a systematic review was developed to examine the available literature on the subject, in order to answer the main research question, formulated as follows: how to strengthen the resilience of the supply chain in the face of unforeseen events while continuing to integrate sustainable development considerations? Based on the PRISMA guidelines, 97 articles, out of 782 initially identified, were selected, analyzed (descriptive and bibliometric analysis) and synthesized. The main results indicate that the integration of sustainability considerations requires a disruption-resilient supply chain as a precondition, and that a sustainable supply chain can contribute to strengthening its resilience; thus, their achievement allows to gain a competitive advantage. Their implementation can be done through the implementation of risk management, the integration of Lean, Agile, Resilient and Green paradigms as well as the implementation of digital tools and new technologies. This review also highlights the limitations and mentions possible future research directions.