Building Sustainable Supply Chain Resilience Through Digitalisation and Circular Practices: Evidence from Emerging Economies

Key findings from this study

• The study found that digitalisation positively associates with circular-economy adoption and supply chain resilience in emerging economies.
• The researchers demonstrate that circular practices further strengthen supply chain resilience beyond initial digitalisation effects.
• The authors report that resilient supply chains exhibit strong associations with improved sustainability performance.
• The study found that sustainability outcomes emerge through sequential capability-building involving digitalisation, circularity, and resilience rather than isolated technological effects.

Overview

This study examines how digitalisation and circular-economy practices jointly enhance supply chain resilience and sustainability performance in 32 emerging economies between 2010 and 2023. The research employs the Resource-Based View and Dynamic Capability Theory to test a serial mediation framework. The authors draw on internationally comparable data from the World Bank, OECD, UN SDG Database, and UNIDO.

Methods and approach

The analysis applies fixed-effects panel regressions, mediation analysis, and Structural Equation Modelling to a balanced panel dataset spanning 13 years. The framework tests sequential relationships: digitalisation influences circular-economy adoption, which strengthens resilience, which in turn improves sustainability outcomes. The study uses standardized indicators from multiple international databases to ensure comparability across emerging economies.

Results

Digitalisation demonstrates positive associations with both circular-economy adoption and supply chain resilience. Circular practices further strengthen resilience mechanisms within supply chains. Resilient supply chains correlate strongly with enhanced sustainability performance across the sample. The serial mediation results reveal that sustainability outcomes emerge through cumulative capability-building rather than isolated technological interventions. This sequential pathway indicates that digitalisation effects on sustainability are mediated through intermediate stages of circularity and resilience development.

Implications

The findings underscore the necessity for integrated policy frameworks that simultaneously advance digital transformation and circular-economy principles in emerging economies. Policymakers cannot effectively enhance resilience through digitalisation alone; circular practices must be developed in parallel to realize sustainability gains. National governments should coordinate digital infrastructure investments with circular-economy regulations to strengthen supply chain robustness against climate risks and geopolitical disruptions.

The cumulative capability-building pathway identified in the study suggests that short-term policy interventions targeting single dimensions will yield limited returns. Emerging economies require sustained, coordinated efforts across digital and circular domains to build durable supply chain resilience. International development agencies should prioritize technical assistance programs that integrate these practices rather than addressing them separately.

Scope and limitations

This summary is based on the study abstract and available metadata. It does not include a full analysis of the complete paper, supplementary materials, or underlying datasets unless explicitly stated. Findings should be interpreted in the context of the original publication.