The Sustainability Promise of Industry 4.0 in Supply Chains: A Technology Life Cycle–Aligned Review

ABSTRACT This article aims to investigate the role of information and digital technologies (IDT) of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) for sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). Methodologically, a systematic literature review has been conducted. The review analyzes 104 high‐quality articles, selecting those that belong to high‐impact journals according to the ABS ranking and focusing on those that exceed the average number of citations for their year of publication. The analysis of these articles offers a new classification of the literature that groups the publications into three lines of research according to their position in the technology life cycle: (1) mature IDT of I4.0; (2) emerging I4.0 IDT (divided into base, medium, and advanced); and (3) generic I4.0 IDT. The results show the need for a joint analysis of I4.0 IDTs to achieve full SSCM. This work visualizes the evolution of research and detects gaps in the literature, proposing new opportunities for future research.