Mediating effect of industry 4.0 technologies on the supply chain management practices and supply chain performance

Abstract

The ever-growing concern of sustainability and survivability attracts academicians and practitioners to develop strategies and supply chain capabilities that cater to the challenges and helps in achieving the sustainability development goals. There is a need to develop a holistic model that facilitates understanding the relationships among supply chain practices, industry 4.0 technologies, and supply chain performance measures. Thus, this study examines the mediating effect of industry 4.0 technologies on supply chain management practices and supply chain performance measures. A survey-based data was collected from manufacturing organizations across India, and 361 complete responses were obtained. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized for data analysis. This study has multiple contributions. First, the results indicate that the supply chain management practices influence the industry 4.0 technologies adoption. Second, the results also revealed that the industry 4.0 technologies significantly positively affect supply chain performance measures. Finally, industry 4.0 technologies mediated the relations between supply chain management practices and supply chain performance measures. Furthermore, the findings offer important insights into understanding the underlying mechanisms in successfully adopting and effectively using industry 4.0 technologies. The implications for theory and practices are also discussed.

Keywords: Industry 4.0; Industry 4.0 technologies; Structural equation modeling (SEM); Supply chain strategies; Supply chain sustainability.