Title: Modelling the barriers of supply chain transparency in the post-COVID-19 scenario

Authors: Sanjukta Chatterjee; Debmallya Chatterjee

Addresses: S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai, 400058, India ' S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai, 400058, India

Abstract: Transparent supply chains have slowly gained prominence because of their utility in resolving sustainability concerns and improving operational efficiency and decision making. It requires companies to know more about their upstream chain and communicate it to their internal and external stakeholders. This in turn helps build resilience into the supply chains, making response quicker in the face of disruptive events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite both the necessity and obligation, companies are struggling with implementing a transparent supply chain because of unclear reasons. In this paper, we identify and model those barriers in implementing transparent supply chains. Results suggest that customer privacy drives other barriers in the system and hence should be given adequate importance while forming the data pipeline for transparent supply chains. Vague short-term ROI, low technology adoption, and underdeveloped infrastructure also emerged as critical barriers that managers should carefully mitigate while implementing transparency in supply chains.

Keywords: COVID-19; supply chain transparency; supply chain resilience; sustainability; implementation barriers; interpretive structural modelling; ISM; MICMAC analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLEG.2022.120812

International Journal of Logistics Economics and Globalisation, 2022 Vol.9 No.3, pp.277 - 301

Received: 30 Apr 2021
Accepted: 10 Nov 2021
Published online: 10 Feb 2022 *