Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-12-2025
Abstract
Global supply chains face increasing disruptions from cyber threats, geopolitical instability, extreme weather events, and a range of economic, social, and environmental sustainability challenges. As these disruptions intensify, enhancing Supply Chain Resilience (SCR) has become a strategic priority. This study investigates how Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) can contribute to SCR by mitigating vulnerabilities and strengthening key capabilities within global supply chains. A qualitative research approach is employed, utilizing expert evaluations to examine DLT’s impact on supply chain vulnerabilities and capabilities. Five workshops were conducted with 25 industry professionals from logistics, IT, procurement, and risk management. Experts examined how DLT could address disruptions stemming from supplier instability, poor traceability, and regulatory and environmental pressures, while highlighting its potential to drive ethical sourcing and environmentally responsible practices. The structured discussions were guided by theoretical frameworks and expert evaluations were synthesized into two analytical matrices illustrating DLT’s influence on SCR. The findings reveal that the contribution of DLT to SCR and sustainability is highly context-dependent, with its effectiveness hinging on how it is embedded within governance structures and aligned with the interplay of complementary technologies. Building on these insights, the study presents the DLT-LFL (Distributed Ledger Technology–Learning Feedback Loop) framework, which integrates sensing, decision-making, adaptation, and predictive learning from distributed operational data, allowing supply chains to better anticipate disruptions, adjust processes dynamically, and continuously strengthen resilience and sustainable practices. The study also develops a practical checklist to assess how effective DLT applications and their integration with predictive and AI-driven analytics reduce vulnerabilities, strengthen capabilities, mitigate risks, and support adaptive decision-making.
Mehmet Akif Gulum’s ORCID record Recommended Citation
Gürpinar, T., & Gulum, M. A. (2025). Building Resilient and Sustainable Supply Chains: A Distributed Ledger-Based Learning Feedback Loop. Sustainability, 17(20), 9023. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17209023
Comments
Copyright: © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/).