Investigating digital transformation technologically enabled solutions in reverse logistics: a systematic review

The complicated and dynamic conditions of the contemporary era, which partially is due to the advances in the communication age technology, have been influenced by digital transformation. Therefore, such issues necessitate reviewing fundamental changes in the requirements for improving enterprises, especially supply chain components. In recent years, reverse logistics of the supply chain, as a complement of forward logistics, have had a significant share of research literature regarding its major benefits in proper management and dramatic effects. In this regard, entering the modern advanced world requires new outlooks in terms of traditional paradigms through the lens of digitalization and their synchronization with continuous changes. Accordingly, this transformation has significantly affected the concept of reverse logistics. To identify the solutions ahead, through a systematic review of valid scientific databases, we reviewed almost 100 papers published in the last decade focusing on three basic topics: digital transformation, decision support systems, and logistics/reverse logistics. After extracting all major subcategories of the literature based on the research methodology, a comprehensive view allowed mapping of the literature based on main concepts to synthesize the developments of different research streams, and research gaps were introduced to clarify future research suggestions.