Digital Logistics 4.0 and Circular Supply Chain Transitions in Emerging Economies: Digitalisation, Sustainability, and the SDGs

The world’s supply chains and logistics networks are at a turning point. As the main source of flow through the world economy of materials, products, and information, they account for almost 60% of industrial greenhouse gas emissions and generate large amounts of solid waste through linear take-make-dispose practices (Sharma et al. 2024). At the same time, digital technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, digital twins, and big data analytics are transforming the pace of logistics operations in a way never seen before, providing powerful tools for visibility, optimization, and decarbonization. In the case of emerging economies in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, where the limiting factors of infrastructure, institutional gaps, and resource scarcity converge with the increasing volumes of trade, the intersection of Logistics 4.0 technologies and the principles of the circular economy (CE) emerge as a revolutionary yet insufficiently explored channel of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This Research Topic aims to produce rigorous, localized knowledge at this nexus, enhancing both the knowledge and the practice.The overall objective of this Research is to promote the state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research on the incorporation of digital logistics technologies and circular supply chain strategies in emerging economies, with clear references to the realisation of the SDGs. In particular, this Research Topic aims to: (1) investigate how digital tools of the Logistics 4.0 digital platform such as AI-driven demand forecasting, blockchain-enabled traceability, IoT-enabled asset tracking, and digital twin simulation accelerate the adoption of the circular economy into supply chain systems; (2) examine the enablers, barriers, and readiness conditions of digitalised transitions of the circular economy in supply chain systems; (3) develop and validate measurement frameworks that capture the integrated performance of digital supply chains with respect to SDG targets; and (4) generate evidence-based policy and managerial insights that are contextually sensitive to new reality of the emerging economy but internationally transferable. Contributions that bridge theory and practice through empirical research, mixed-methods inquiry, or computational modelling are especially encouraged.This Research Topic invites submissions spanning the following thematic areas:o Digital transformation of developing and emerging economies supply chains and logistics 4.0.o Strategies of the circular economy in the logistics networks: reverse logistics, closed-loop systems, and waste valorisation.o Smart port development: IoT infrastructure, terminal operations using AI, and port community systems.o Blockchain, IoT and AI applications of sustainable and transparent supply chain management.o Digital twin and simulated modelling in planning the transition of the circular supply chain. Topic editors: Dr. Chandra Kant Upadhyay, Dr. Vineet Tiwari, Sandeep Jagtap Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81723/digital-logistics-40-and-circular-supply-chain-transitions-in-emerging-economies-digitalisation-sustainability-and-the-sdgs