Global Supply Chains under Trade Uncertainty – Leveraging Technology and Innovation

Special Section of IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management:
Global Supply Chains under Trade Uncertainty – Leveraging Technology and Innovation

Guest Editors

• Sean Arisian (La Trobe University, Australia), corresponding guest editor
• Mabel C. Chou (National University of Singapore, Singapore)
• Maggie Dong (University of New South Wales, Australia)
• Eric K.H Leung (University of Liverpool, UK)

Overview

Global supply chains are increasingly disrupted by trade uncertainty arising from tariff volatility, abrupt trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, and external disruptions such as pandemics and natural disasters. These disruptions impact the flow of goods, increase operational costs, create inventory shortages, and undermine overall efficiency (Bednarski et al., 2023; Darby et al., 2020; Fan et al., 2022; Hezarkhani et al., 2023; Lücker et al., 2024; Moradlou et al., 2024).

For example, trade tensions between the U.S. and China, accompanied by tariffs on key commodities, forced companies to shift sourcing and production locations while increasing inventory levels to mitigate policy uncertainty (Fan et al., 2022). A Moody’s report revealed that U.S. importers absorbed 90% of the additional costs resulting from tariffs (Lee, 2021), while a survey of over 200,000 firms indicated that 40% of U.S. companies experienced higher operating costs due to the trade war (Sim, 2020). The repercussions extended beyond the U.S. and China, affecting third countries linked through global supply chains (Mao & Görg, 2020; Wu et al., 2021). Similarly, in 2022, the geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine triggered unprecedented sanctions, disrupting global supply chains and increasing pressure on the trade of critical commodities such as wheat, fertilizer, natural gas, and crude oil (Izzeldin et al., 2023; Srai et al., 2023). These disruptions led to a crisis in European energy markets (Bednarski et al., 2023) and further aggravated global food insecurity (Glauber et al., 2023).

In addition to severe trade tensions and geopolitical conflicts, political transitions of individual countries often contribute to trade uncertainties, further complicating the global supply chain landscape. For instance, the turnover of a country’s top politician has been shown to increase trade uncertainties, leading to reduced supply chain involvement in the affected countries (Dong et al., 2022). In this unpredictable global environment, firms face immense challenges in balancing resilience and competitiveness (Asian et al., 2020; Reza-Gharehbagh et al., 2021). Exploring innovative strategies and solutions to mitigate these risks is critical for ensuring the stability and efficiency of global supply chains.

Traditional risk mitigation strategies, including inventory stockpiling, supplier and production diversification, nearshoring, and onshoring, have been widely adopted to address trade uncertainty. While these strategies offer some level of protection, they often fail to adequately address the complexities and dynamic challenges of modern global supply chains. Key limitations include:

• Scalability Limitations: Stockpiling is costly and logistically demanding, imposing high carrying costs, straining storage infrastructure, and creating inefficiencies in inventory turnover (Liu et al., 2016). These challenges are especially acute for time-sensitive or perishable goods (Lee et al., 2014).
• Operational Challenges: Diversification can add complexity—misaligned lead times, coordination difficulties, and logistics inefficiencies—undermining resilience benefits (Fan et al., 2022).
• Adaptation Barriers: Near/onshoring face legal, contractual, and infrastructural constraints; lack of real-time data and advanced planning tools limits swift adaptation.
• Economic Welfare Concerns: Open questions remain about balancing global efficiency with domestic welfare and equitable stakeholder outcomes.

Despite extensive research on logistics and supply chains, discussion of direct impacts of trade uncertainty and technology-driven solutions remains limited (Charpin et al., 2024; Dong & Kouvelis, 2020). There is an urgent need to explore breakthrough technologies and inclusive, technology-driven mechanisms that counterbalance losses from trade uncertainty.

The rise of Industry 5.0 (collaborative robots, autonomous systems, human-AI interaction, additive manufacturing, real-time insights) enables adaptive risk-mitigation frameworks (Nazarian & Khan, 2024; Yu et al., 2022). Alongside AI/ML, big data analytics, blockchain, automation, and cloud computing (Hsu et al., 2024; Wang et al., 2023; Leung et al., 2022), firms can build more resilient, efficient, and adaptive global supply chains.

This Special Section invites high-quality, interdisciplinary research blending theoretical depth with practical insights. We especially welcome studies integrating advanced technologies into supply chain risk management to address inefficiencies in traditional mitigation methods.

Scope and Themes

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should comply with IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management formatting and style requirements. Research should demonstrate methodological rigor and highlight implications for theory and practice.

Submit via: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tem-ieee

Recommended Methodologies

• Case Studies
• Empirical Research
• Analytical Modelling
• Multi-Methodological Approaches
• Simulation and System Dynamics

Important Dates

Guest Editor Bios

• Sobhan (Sean) Arisian — Discipline lead for Sustainable Operations Management, La Trobe Business School. Research focuses on the global supply chain/international trade interface and transformative digital supply chain strategies for indigenous innovation. Publications include Production & Operations Management, IEEE Transactions on SMC, International Journal of Production Economics, and International Journal of Production Research. Associate Editor for “TRE”; Editorial Review Board member for IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.
• Mabel C. Chou — Associate Professor, Analytics & Operations, National University of Singapore (NUS). Research in production scheduling and supply chain analysis; publications in Operations Research, Management Science, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Mathematical Programming, POM, EJOR, and FSMJ. Associate Editor for Operations Research and Pacific Journal of Optimization.
• Maggie Chuoyan Dong — Head of School & Professor, School of Marketing, University of New South Wales. Interests span B2B marketing and the marketing-operations interface (supply networks, resilience, digital transformation). Publications include JOM, POM, JMR, ISR, IEEE TEM, and Decision Sciences. Department Editor of IEEE TEM, Associate Editor of Decision Sciences, Editorial Board Member of JAMS, and member of the College of Experts, Australian Research Council.
• Eric Ka Ho Leung — Associate Professor in Digital Business & Data Analytics, University of Liverpool Management School. Publications in IEEE TEM, EJOR, Transportation Research Part E, IJPE, and IJPR; authored book series including Progress in Economics Research and Managerial Strategies and Solutions for Business Success in Asia. Research interests include supply chain management, e-commerce logistics, transportation management, (big) data analytics, digital transformation, AI/ML, and IoT applications.

References

1. Asian, S., Wang, J., & Dickson, G. (2020). Trade disruptions, behavioral biases, and social influences: Can luxury sporting goods supply chains be immunized? Transportation Research Part E, 143, 102064.
2. Bednarski, L., Roscoe, S., Blome, C., & Schleper, M. C. (2023). Geopolitical disruptions in global supply chains: a state-of-the-art literature review. Production Planning & Control, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2023.2286283
3. Charpin, R., London, J., & Vincent, N. (2024). The effect of geopolitical tensions on international research collaborations and its implications for global operations management. International Journal of Production Economics, 268, 109120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2023.109120
4. Darby, J. L., Ketchen Jr, D. J., Williams, B. D., & Tokar, T. (2020). The implications of firm‐specific policy risk, policy uncertainty, and industry factors for inventory: A resource dependence perspective. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 56(4), 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/jscm.12229
5. Dong, L., & Kouvelis, P. (2020). Impact of tariffs on global supply chain network configuration: Models, predictions, and future research. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 22(1), 25–35. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2019.0802
6. Dong, M. C., Huang, Q., & Liu, Z. (2022). Adjusting supply chain involvement in countries with politician turnover: A contingency framework. Journal of Operations Management, 68(8), 824–854. https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1213
7. Fan, D., Zhou, Y., Yeung, A. C., Lo, C. K., & Tang, C. (2022). Impact of the US–China trade war on the operating performance of US firms: The role of outsourcing and supply base complexity. Journal of Operations Management, 68(8), 928–962. https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1225
8. Glauber, J. W., Laborde Debucquet, D., & Mamun, A. (Eds.). (2023). From bad to worse: How Russia-Ukraine war-related export restrictions exacerbate global food insecurity. CGIAR. https://doi.org/10.2499/9780896294394_18
9. Hezarkhani, B., Arisian, S., & Mansouri, A. (2023). Global agricultural supply chains under tariff‐rate quotas. Production and Operations Management, 32(11), 3634–3649.
10. Hsu, C.-H., Wu, J.-Z., Zhang, T.-Y., & Chen, J.-Y. (2024). Deploying Industry 5.0 drivers to enhance sustainable supply chain risk resilience. International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 17(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/19397038.2024.2327381
11. Izzeldin, M., Muradoğlu, Y. G., Pappas, V., Petropoulou, A., & Sivaprasad, S. (2023). The impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on global financial markets. International Review of Financial Analysis, 87, 102598. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2023.102598
12. Lee, Y.-M., Mu, S., Shen, Z., & Dessouky, M. (2014). Issuing for perishable inventory management with a minimum inventory volume constraint. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 76, 280–291. https://doi.org/j.cie.2014.08.007
13. Lee, Y. N. (2021). U.S. companies are bearing the brunt of Trump’s China tariffs. CNBC. Link
14. Leung, E. K. H., Lee, C. K. H., & Ouyang, Z. (2022). From traditional warehouses to Physical Internet hubs: A digital twin-based inbound synchronization framework for PI-order management. International Journal of Production Economics, 244, 108353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2021.108353
15. Liu, F., Song, J. S., & Tong, J. D. (2016). Building supply chain resilience through virtual stockpile pooling. Production and Operations Management, 25(10), 1745–1762. https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.12573
16. Lücker, F., Timonina-Farkas, A., & Seifert, R. (2024). Balancing Resilience and Efficiency: A Literature Review on Overcoming Supply Chain Disruptions. Production and Operations Management. https://doi.org/10.1177/10591478241302735
17. Mao, H., & Görg, H. (2020). Friends like this: The impact of the US–China trade war on global value chains. The World Economy, 43(7), 1776–1791. https://doi.org/10.1111/twec.12967
18. Moradlou, H., Skipworth, H., Bals, L., Aktas, E., & Roscoe, S. (2024). Geopolitical disruptions and supply chain structural ambidexterity. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Published ahead of print, August 13. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-11-2023-0915
19. Nazarian, H., & Khan, S. A. (2024). The impact of industry 5.0 on supply chain performance. International Journal of Engineering Business Management, 16, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/184797902412970
20. Reza-Gharehbagh, R., Asian, S., Hafezalkotob, A., & Wei, C. (2021). Reframing supply chain finance in an era of reglobalization: On the value of multi-sided crowdfunding platforms. Transportation Research Part E, 149, 102298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2021.102298
21. Sim, B. (2020). US-China trade war ‘costs UK and US firms $750bn’, says report. Financial News. Link
22. Srai, J. S., Graham, G., Van Hoek, R., Joglekar, N., & Lorentz, H. (2023). Impact pathways: unhooking supply chains from conflict zones—reconfiguration and fragmentation lessons from the Ukraine–Russia war. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 43(13), 289–301. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-08-2022-0529
23. Wang, Z.-J., Chen, Z.-S., Xiao, L., Su, Q., Govindan, K., & Skibniewski, M. J. (2023). Blockchain adoption in sustainable supply chains for Industry 5.0: A multistakeholder perspective. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 8(4), 100425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2023.100425
24. Wu, J., Wood, J., Oh, K., & Jang, H. (2021). Evaluating the cumulative impact of the US–China trade war along global value chains. The World Economy, 44(12), 3516–3533. https://doi.org/10.1111/twec.13125
25. Yu, W., Chavez, R., Jacobs, M. A., & Wong, C. Y. (2022). Openness to technological innovation, supply chain resilience, and operational performance: exploring the role of information processing capabilities. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 71, 1258–1270. https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2022.3156531