Digital Technologies for Sustainable Supply Chain Transformation: A Qualitative Study of Adoption, Benefits, and Barriers in Central European Industries

Abstract

Digital technologies are widely expected to reshape supply chains, yet the conditions under which they deliver operational and sustainability-related value in practice remain insufficiently understood. This study examines how digital technologies influence supply chain operations and performance, where performance is operationalized through demand forecasting accuracy, cost, lead time, visibility, and inter-organizational collaboration, and asks how these technologies can support more resilient, resource-efficient, and sustainable supply chain operations. The study adopts an exploratory qualitative design based on semi-structured interviews with eight supply chain professionals at manager level or above, drawn from the aluminum, elevator, railway, food, and consumer goods industries in Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, and conducted between March and June 2025. A structured literature review complements the interview evidence. Within this exploratory sample, Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics were the most widely adopted technologies (five of eight participants each), followed by the Internet of Things (four of eight) and Automation (five of eight), while no participant reported active Blockchain deployment. Reported benefits concentrated on forecasting accuracy, operational efficiency, visibility, and collaboration, whereas high implementation costs, legacy system integration, skill shortages, and regulatory uncertainty formed the principal barriers. The central finding is a conditional relationship between adoption and competitiveness: internal operational gains did not automatically translate into competitive advantage among the professionals interviewed, but appeared to require strategic alignment, cross-functional integration, and performance measurement. Because digitally enabled forecasting, inventory positioning, and resource optimization also reduce waste and improve resource utilization, the findings link digital supply chain transformation to sustainable development objectives. This exploratory study of eight participants therefore provides practitioner-level propositions and a research agenda for digital and sustainable supply chain transformation rather than statistically generalizable findings.