Digital Technologies Enabling Circular Logistics for Sustainable Performance in Agro-Industrial Supply Chains: A Mechanism-Based Integrative Literature Review

Abstract

This integrative literature review examines how digital technologies enable circular logistics and contribute to sustainable performance in agro-industrial supply chains. A consolidated set of 58 candidate publications was reviewed, with 53 studies retained as the core analytical corpus. The synthesis focuses on the mechanisms through which technologies such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, blockchain, cloud platforms, digital twins, and automation create logistics capabilities including visibility, prediction, traceability, information integration, decision support, and automated execution. These capabilities support circular logistics practices such as loss and waste prevention, resource-efficient logistics, redistribution, recovery, by-product valorization, reverse logistics, and closed or cross-industry flows. The review finds that economic and environmental outcomes are more consistently represented than social outcomes, while the effectiveness of digital interventions varies across supply-chain stages and implementation settings. An integrative framework is developed in which digital technologies contribute to sustainable performance through identifiable digital-logistics mechanisms and circular logistics practices, subject to organizational, economic, infrastructural, institutional, collaboration, and data-governance conditions.