The 5th International Conference on Digitalization and Management Innovation (DMI2026)

Abstract: Under the tide of "industry 4.0", digital economy promotes global trade, and digital supply chain (DSC) has increasingly become the core competition of manufacturing enterprises. However，Industry 4.0 technologies are in a typical technology-push market now. There is less evidence that those companies implementing these technologies in their supply chain have improved their performance. In fact, some digital transformations failed, while many other companies would rather wait and see. One of the reasons was that those projects focused on digital technologies alone while ignoring organizational and strategic factors. This paper reports a review of digital supply chain from technological, organizational and strategic perspectives. It is proposed that digital supply chain will enhance supply chain performance with the moderation of organizational readiness and strategic alignment. The three sets of propositions lead to a systematic conceptual model that incorporates Strategic, Technological, Organizational factors and then Performance (STOP). The STOP model can be used for further empirical research and also practical assessment before implementing a DSC project.

Keywords: Digital supply chain, Industry 4.0, organizational readiness, strategic alignment, readiness assessment

Biography: Prof. Sun has been working for 27 years in the Department of Systems Engineering, City University of Hong Kong. He is an adjunct professor in Shantou University. He is the programme director of the Engineering Doctorate programme in Engineering Management, EngD(EM). His teaching and research areas include the management of technological innovation, supply chain management, manufacturing/operations strategy, quality management, and innovation education. He resides on the editorial board of TECHNOVATION, the International Journal of Learning and Changes and International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management (IJQRM). He has published about 100 papers in international journals, google citation=7666, h-index=47 and i10-index=95.
Prof. Sun was listed in the Stanford global top 2% full career in Business and Management. He has twice been the winner of the Teaching Excellence Award at the City University of Hong Kong, European Excellence award in innovation and entrepreneurship education, IEOM global engineering education award, etc. His cross-disciplinary PIPE model, 3333 model, BMMB model, VIP model etc. motivate students to actively acquire a broad range of new knowledge along the innovation and entrepreneurship process. His teaching methods and models, reported in academic conferences and journals, have become widely recognized. He has become a regular speaker on innovation education and management workshops and conferences.