Explaining Supply Chain Resilience through the Integration of Digital Leadership and Artificial Intelligence in Socio-Technical System Perspective

Abstract

Supply chain resilience has become a strategic capability for organizations seeking sustainable growth amid increasing disruptions and uncertainty. While previous studies have examined digital leadership and artificial intelligence (AI) in supply chain management, few have integrated these capabilities within a unified theoretical framework. This paper proposes a conceptual framework grounded in Socio-Technical System Theory, positioning Digital Leadership as the social subsystem and AI as the technological subsystem. The framework explains how their complementary interaction strengthens Supply Chain Resilience (SCR), which subsequently promotes Sustainable Growth (SG) in the wholesale and retail trade industry. Developed through a structured review of recent literature, the model synthesizes current theoretical and empirical insights into an integrated framework. The study contributes to supply chain resilience literature by demonstrating that managerial capabilities and intelligent technologies function as complementary organizational resources, with SCR serving as the mediating capability linking Digital Leadership and AI to sustainable organizational performance. The proposed framework provides a theoretical basis for future empirical studies to validate the relationships across different industry contexts.