Conference Themes and Topics
The logistics and supply chain management field stands at an inflection point. Digital technologies — artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced analytics, and automation — are fundamentally altering how supply chains are designed, how decisions are made, and what skills and structures organisations require. Yet the most critical challenge is not technological adoption: it is the capacity of organisations to lead transformation with intent, to innovate systematically, and to develop the human and organisational capabilities that make intelligent systems truly effective.
The 2027 LSCM Forum theme — Intelligent by Design: Rethinking Leadership, Innovation and Capabilities in Logistics and Supply Chains — calls for scholarship that interrogates the design principles underlying tomorrow’s supply chains. We invite contributions that examine how intelligence can be purposefully embedded in logistics and supply chain systems, and what this demands of leaders, organisations, researchers, and policymakers.
Sub-themes and Research Tracks
1. AI and Machine Learning in Supply Chain Decision-Making
Artificial intelligence is reshaping planning, forecasting, routing, and procurement decisions across the supply chain. This track examines empirical and theoretical contributions on the adoption, performance, governance, and unintended consequences of AI-driven decision-making in supply chain contexts.
2. Leadership and Organisational Capabilities in SCM Transformation
Supply chain transformation requires more than new systems — it demands new forms of leadership, organisational learning, and change management. This track welcomes studies on how leaders and organisations build, deploy, and renew the capabilities required to navigate technological and market disruption.
3. Innovation Ecosystems and Open Innovation in Logistics
Logistics and supply chain innovation increasingly occurs across organisational boundaries, in ecosystems of firms, universities, and public actors. This track explores open innovation models, platform strategies, co-creation, and the conditions that enable or impede collaborative innovation in the field.
4. Human–Technology Collaboration and Workforce Development
Automation and AI do not replace human judgement — they redefine it. This track addresses the evolving relationship between people and technology in supply chain work, including workforce reskilling, human-in-the-loop systems, ergonomics, and the organisational design of hybrid work environments.
5. Resilience and Intelligent Risk Management
Supply chain resilience has moved from niche concern to strategic imperative. This track focuses on intelligent approaches to risk identification, assessment, and mitigation — including the use of real-time data, predictive analytics, scenario planning, and adaptive supply chain architectures.
6. Sustainable Intelligence: Green Logistics Meets Data-Driven Operations
Sustainability and digitalisation need not be in tension — when designed well, they reinforce each other. This track examines how data, AI, and digital operations can support emissions reduction, circular economy principles, environmental reporting, and the measurement of sustainability outcomes in logistics.
7. Digital Procurement and Intelligent Sourcing
Procurement is undergoing a fundamental transformation driven by data analytics, supplier intelligence platforms, and AI-assisted negotiation and contract management. This track welcomes contributions on digital procurement strategy, supplier relationship management, and the governance of intelligent sourcing systems.
8. Geopolitical Disruptions and Supply Chain Redesign
From trade policy shifts to regional conflicts and critical infrastructure risk, geopolitical dynamics are compelling organisations to reconsider their supply chain footprints. This track explores how firms, governments, and multilateral actors are redesigning supply chains for security, sovereignty, and strategic agility.
The Forum welcomes empirical studies, conceptual frameworks, systematic literature reviews, case studies, and practitioner papers across all tracks. Both mature findings and work-in-progress contributions are encouraged.
