The Internet of Things in Supply Chain Management - Past, Present and Future: Bibliometric analysis, systematic literature review, and adoption/implementation framework

Vlachos, I and Graham, G ORCID: 0000-0002-9908-4974 (2025) The Internet of Things in Supply Chain Management - Past, Present and Future: Bibliometric analysis, systematic literature review, and adoption/implementation framework. International Journal of Production Research. ISSN 0020-7543

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Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) was initially adopted to enhance efficiency and inform decision-making in supply chains (SC), but it is now increasingly utilised as a strategic tool to transform them. No prior study has systematically reviewed the past, present, and future of IoT in the SC context, especially amid the rise of advanced technologies like Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of 572 articles and a systematic literature review of 196 IoT studies published in the SC context between 2009 and 2025 (as of March). Descriptive, topic, and thematic analyses revealed the ‘past’ of IoT adoption and its impact on SC's key barriers to IoT functions and capabilities. This study develops the Theories, Context, Methods - Antecedents, Implementation, Outcomes - Emerging themes (TCM-AIO-E) framework to analyse the past, present, and future of IoT on SCs. The TCM-AIO-E framework guides scholars and practitioners with existing adoption and implementation mechanisms. It reveals opportunities but also significant barriers and a research gap regarding the transformative role of IoT. We propose research questions to guide ‘future’ research and help companies transition from IoT automation to autonomous and autodidact supply chains and production systems.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in International Journal of Production Research. Vlachos, I., & Graham, G. (2025). The internet of things in supply chain management: past, present, and future – a systematic literature review and implementation framework. International Journal of Production Research, 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2025.2553824. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (Deed - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International - Creative Commons ), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Operations Research
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5001 Business T Technology > T Technology (General)
Divisions:	Liverpool Business School
Publisher:	Taylor and Francis Group
Date of acceptance:	22 August 2025
Date Deposited:	22 Aug 2025 14:28
Last Modified:	22 Sep 2025 14:45
DOI or ID number:	10.1080/00207543.2025.2553824
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26979

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