Beyond the surface: a computational exploration of latent topics in the multi-tier sustainable supply chain management literature

As the literature on multi-tier sustainable supply chain management (MT-SSCM) has grown significantly in recent years, this study aims to advance MT-SSCM research by capturing the latent (or hidden) topics found within the relevant body of literature. We conducted a computational literature review that analysed the abstracts of 776 peer-reviewed articles. Our paper presents six thematic clusters, each consisting of multiple topics. It also provides insights into the long-term trends of each latent topic and suggests promising research directions for future studies. Thus, our study may assist researchers in planning impactful MT-SSCM studies and familiarising themselves with the larger discourse in the research field. The study also contributes to general operations and supply chain research by offering a blueprint for analysing larger sets of text-based data using topic modelling.