Emerging technologies and supply chain management: Maneuvering in current areas of tensions

Despite the consensus amongst academics and practitioners on the great potential of digitalized supply chains in the era of Industry 4.0, there is less discussion in the literature about the challenges and risks of implementing such supply chain technologies. The chapter on hand closes this research gap by identifying the 14 most important tensions of digital supply chain management and drawing a more complete picture on the topic of Supply Chain Management 4.0. This tensions, occurring within the categories ‘Strategy & Business Model‘, ‘Operating Model & Execution’, ‘Organization’, ‘IT & Data’ and ‘Technology’ were developed through a structured literature review and semi-structured expert interviews. A tension refers to an option space for decision makers and can be considered as opportunity or threat. Each tension is described in-depth and potential solutions for each tension are identified based on the literature and interview findings. Findings show that a company’s position in the supply chain, its industry and strategy seem to influence the selection of the appropriate digitalization options. However, potential options seem to be highly interdependent and should not be considered and implemented in isolation.