Transformative and disruptive or incremental time wrinkles? How to advance thinking and practice in supply chain sustainability, risk management and digitalization

Purpose Over the past 60 years, the supply chain management discipline has gradually evolved into what it is known as today. In the face of key phenomena that create transformative opportunities for growing societal and business contributions, the question is will the discipline be disrupted and establish a new equilibrium based upon the adoption of new approaches and techniques? Or will it continue on the gradual evolutionary path with a focus on more temporal supply chain topics and practices? In support of our colleagues and (prospective) authors of Innovators and Transformers papers, we offer perspectives on (1) research opportunities in key areas of supply chain transformation and (2) knowledge development approaches. In support of reviewers, we offer perspectives on review screens and approaches in support of innovative and transformative research. Design/methodology/approach Recent management studies have offered criteria for selecting research phenomena that hold truly disruptive opportunities for lasting transformation. We advance those criteria with specific supply chain criteria. Sustainability, risk and digitalization are identified as relevant transformative phenomena for supply chain managers and researchers, to which talent management is added because of its criticality for actualizing transformation. We explore intersections of unknowns in industry and research and suggest research and review approaches for advancing innovation and transformation in supply chain management and research. Findings Given rich intersections of unknowns in industry and research, there is an opportunity to return to the roots of our field in industry collaboration and of rigor and relevance (over rigorous and academic elitism) in research. Additionally, our field has reached a level of maturity that has created room for learning from innovators and transformers from the past. Finally, there is an opportunity to enrich learning and research approaches to accelerate transformation and grow the societal value of supply chain research. Originality/value Criteria for selecting phenomena that present disruptive and transformative opportunities are used and expanded upon with supply chain-specific criteria. Intersections of unknowns in industry and research are identified in sustainability, risk management, supply chain digitalization and talent development. Throughout the launch of the Innovators and Transformers special section of the journal, we learned that authors and reviewers alike can benefit from guidance on topics and approaches for growing contributions to supply chain transformation.