Digital capabilities, global value chains, and sustainability: A bibliometric-content review of converging literatures and governance complementarities

Research on digital capabilities, including Industry 4.0 technologies, increasingly intersects with debates on sustainability and global value chains (GVCs), yet the evidence base remains uneven. This bibliometric-content review maps a 199-record broad-convergence corpus linking digital-capability and Industry 4.0 sustainability research with GVC-sustainability research, while distinguishing a narrower core-nexus validation layer of 28 records (14.1%) in which digital capabilities, value-chain organization, and sustainability are substantively connected. The review uses a Panel A baseline corpus (2012-June 2022; n = 173) for the main bibliometric analysis and a Panel B update-wave scan (July 2022-December 2025; n = 26) to identify recent signals without making strong structural-evolution claims. Performance analysis, co-word mapping, co-citation knowledge-base mapping, and directed content analysis identify recurring themes around implementation barriers, digital transformation and GVC coordination, sustainability links, and performance effects. The synthesis suggests that digital capabilities should not be interpreted as automatic sources of sustainability gains; their sustainability relevance is better understood through governance complements such as standards, interoperability, supplier coordination, traceability, and auditable metrics. The study contributes a capability-governance-outcomes synthesis and a cautious research agenda for measurable sustainability performance in global production networks.