Guest editorial: Supply chain transparency: opportunities, challenges and risks

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides a structured SCT research framework and identifies key gaps for future studies.

🏢実務担当者:Offers insights into balancing transparency and confidentiality in supply chain disclosure, useful for sustainability reporting.

🏛政策担当者:Highlights the regulatory and stakeholder pressures driving SCT, informing policy design for supply chain due diligence.

With increasing pressure from consumers, regulatory bodies and capital markets, firms are being compelled to disclose more information about their products and supply chains (SCs) (Menon and Jain, 2024; Wang et al., 2024; Zheng et al., 2024). Moreover, it has become a hot topic to investigate the impact of social and environmental performance on the long-term development of firms (Chen et al., 2021; Gualandris and Kalchschmidt, 2016; Xu et al., 2023). Supply chain transparency (SCT), a critical aspect of sustainable practices, is receiving increasing attention from the academic community (Carter and Rogers, 2008; Morgan et al., 2023). Moreover, a number of companies have already initiated practices for SCT. For example, Nike, a leading global manufacturer of sports shoes and apparel, launched a project called Manufacturing Map, which allows consumers to view the manufacturing locations of Nike products, as well as information on labor standards and environmental impact (Nike, 2024). The renowned Spanish fashion brand Mango has made its list of third-tier manufacturers available online, offering consumers a transparent view of the brand’s efforts towards sustainability (Mango, 2022).It is crucial for firms to improve SCT. Specifically, SCT can convey positive signals to stakeholders, facilitating financing behavior (Shi et al., 2024), deepening partnerships (Baharmand et al., 2021; Besiou and Van Wassenhove, 2020) and enhancing overall performance (Jia et al., 2023). Furthermore, SCT enhances an organization’s capacity for risk identification and management (Dubey et al., 2019). For example, by enhancing the visibility of the upstream operations within the SC, firms can gain a clearer understanding of the entire SC’s functioning (Sadeghi et al., 2023). This, in turn, enables them to devise proactive strategies aimed at reducing the likelihood of disruptions and mitigating the adverse impact of such disruptions on business operations (Tang, 2006). Moreover, SCT contributes to advancing sustainable firm practices (Dahlmann et al., 2023; Kalkanci and Plambeck, 2020) and mitigating information asymmetry (Lamming et al., 2001; Sadeghi et al., 2022).Transparency is generally considered a valuable trait; however, in SCs and upstream operations, maintaining confidentiality is equally critical. According to Bai and Sarkis (2020), implementing SCT requires firms to disclose their complex, multi-layered SC information, including raw material procurement, production processes, SC operations, partnerships and environmental protection measures. Therefore, pursuing SCT may lead to negative consequences, such as increased competition, reputation damage and legal and regulatory risks (Liu et al., 2024; Sodhi and Tang, 2019).The purpose of this editorial is to summarize key themes in current SCT research. Then, we synthesize these key themes into a structured framework, which will offer meaningful reference for the subsequent research. Finally, we provide a few unique insights into the gaps and directions for future research.To pinpoint the critical issues in SCT research, identify new contributions and determine future directions in the field, we have classified the existing literature on SCT. Subsequently, we design a comprehensive research framework that addresses four key questions, as illustrated in Figure 1. The framework consists of antecedents, practices, outcomes and challenges. Therefore, the following questions guide the logic:The demand for SCT has been driven by the concerns of stakeholders (Sodhi and Tang, 2019; Wang et al., 2024) and the normative pressures of regulations (Budler et al., 2024). Firms’ disclosure is a crucial component of SCT, yet the extent of such disclosure is a highly subjective decision (Gardner et al., 2019). In the existing literature, various factors affecting SCT have been identified.The structure of the SC network is pivotal in either promoting or constraining SCT (Dubey et al., 2020). Gualandris et al. (2021) examine the relationship between SCT and SC structure characterized by interconnectivity and heterogeneity. Their research reveals a positive correlation between SC density and transparency, as well as between geographical heterogeneity and transparency. At the node level of the SC network, relational embeddedness fosters information sharing among SC members, thereby enhancing SCT. Feng et al. (2024) discover that supplier concentration positively impacts SCT. In addition, the relative position of firms in different SCs also affects their transparency performance, especially the “hub firms” that play key roles in multiple SCs. These hub firms often need to maintain a high level of transparency in different business relationships to facilitate the management and coordination of complex transaction networks.Given today’s volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of the business environment (what is labeled as VUCA), it can be challenging for firms to achieve the required level of SCT for optimal business performance. Specifically, according to the dynamic capability theory, a firm’s external environment has a decisive impact on its SC strategy, thereby affecting the extent of its information disclosure, and is moderated by internal and external environmental factors such as online media reports, government environmental subsidies and industrial competition intensity (Qrunfleh and Tarafdar, 2014; Wang et al., 2024). Moreover, various stakeholders have diverse demands for a firm’s SCT. For instance, carbon transparency in greenhouse gas emissions from the SC is a result of complex interactions among normative, mimetic and coercive pressures (Tuladhar et al., 2024). Similarly, while firms need to disclose their information openly, they also need to maintain their legitimacy by achieving their sustainable development goals. Therefore, firms must balance and carefully manage the tension between these two aspects (Dahlmann et al., 2023).Another essential factor contributing to the current widespread attention on SCT is the emergence of necessary technologies to support transparency (Bai and Sarkis, 2020). Digital technologies have sparked a revolutionary transformation in the field of SC management. Digital technologies can assist organizations in capturing, representing and analyzing complex SC operations (Budler et al., 2024; Xu et al., 2023). Specifically, through digital technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) (Feng et al., 2020), digital twins (e.g. cloud computing and big data analytics) (Freese and Ludwig, 2024), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) (Heese, 2007) and 5G wireless (Morgan et al., 2023), firms may better reach real-time data collection, intelligent analysis and simulation capabilities. Consequently, the deployment of these technologies assists firms in overcoming multi-level information barriers within the SC (Bai and Sarkis, 2020; Keller et al., 2021) and ensuring the accuracy and credibility of full-chain information sharing (Feng et al., 2024). For instance, techniques such as data mining and network analysis can assist researchers in extracting valuable information from vast amounts of data, revealing potential connections within the SC network (Feng et al., 2024). Finally, AI and machine learning technologies can augment firm operations through automation, thereby enhancing efficiency and transparency (Zheng et al., 2024).Blockchain refers to a shared distributed ledger where transactions are digitally recorded and linked in a chain containing the entire history or provenance of an asset (Baharmand et al., 2021). It promotes SCT and traceability through its key attributes of traceability, immutability, auditability and provenance (Menon and Jain, 2024; Saurabh and Dey, 2021; Tuladhar et al., 2024). Smart contracts, one of the most notable innovations in blockchain technology, facilitate the automation of business processes and include member information within the upstream and downstream SC (Ahmed et al., 2022). Through this information flow, firms can achieve product traceability, goods location tracking, storage condition monitoring and compliance verification (Menon and Jain, 2024). Moreover, blockchain applications encompass interoperability with various Industry 4.0 technologies (Dolgui and Ivanov, 2022; Li et al., 2023).Within the existing literature, terms such as disclosure, visibility, traceability and openness are often used synonymously with SCT, leading to ambiguity in key concepts. This ambiguity may lead to a lack of clear direction and objectives when implementing SCT practices (Keller et al., 2021). Furthermore, this inconsistency poses challenges in comparing and integrating research findings on SCT (Morgan et al., 2023). To avoid confusion and promote a consistent understanding of SCT, we clarify these terms based on previous literature (Table 1).Attributes such as visibility, traceability, openness and disclosure are intertwined, collectively forming the fundamental concept of SCT and guiding its practical implementation (Gualandris et al., 2021; Montecchi et al., 2021). First, SCT practices are manifested in the proactive disclosure of relevant information and information sharing (Sodhi and Tang, 2019). For instance, Sadeghi et al. (2022) find that supplier disclosures through buyer’s monitoring of business continuity and operations performance can lead to improved performance by the buyer. Such disclosures facilitate real-time information flow, encompassing order status, inventory levels, production progress and SC risk information, which is essential for achieving SCT (Dubey et al., 2020).Second, it is crucial to ensure that each link in the SC has adequate visibility and traceability, thereby enabling the entire operational process of the SC to be tracked and recorded (Ahmed et al., 2022; Keller et al., 2021; Tuladhar et al., 2024). Regarding visibility, it actually involves multiple levels, determined by the quantity and qual

• openalex https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-09-2024-992first seen 2026-08-02 18:10:17