Reinventing the Supply Chain in the Face of Contemporary Transitions: Strategic Resilience, Digitalization, and Sustainable Performance

Abstract

This research examines how digital transformation affects the strategic resilience and sustainable performance of supply chains in West Africa. To achieve this objective, it adopts a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, combining first a quantitative phase involving 859 logistics managers in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, analysed using structural equation modelling, followed by a qualitative phase comprising 27 in-depth semi-structured interviews analysed using NVivo 14. The results provided by SmartPLS 4 show that there is no technological determinism and validate a model of total sequential mediation. Indeed, digitalisation has no direct effect on either resilience or sustainability; its strategic impact depends entirely on the prior development of relational integration routines and Triple-A dynamic capabilities (agility, adaptability, alignment). Qualitative analysis enriches this model by highlighting a managerial duality: although technology generates direct transactional micro-gains – notably improved raw internal visibility – only organisational and human skills enable a genuine leap forward towards effective resilience in the face of systemic shocks. Finally, the multi-group analysis confirms that this reliance on digital integration varies significantly depending on the industrial sector, particularly due to the complexity of material flows.