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Purpose The rapid growth of e-commerce, the emergence of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), and increasing demands for product safety and quality are reshaping supply chain management, driving firms to invest in digital technologies that enhance coordination, information sharing, and data analytics capabilities. Despite these advancements, upstream supply chain visibility remains constrained by financial limitations, inadequate infrastructure, workforce skill gaps, and uncertainty regarding the most critical barriers to address. This study identifies, prioritizes, and structurally analyzes the main barriers to upstream visibility in large companies in Brazil and Portugal using the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework. Design/methodology/approach A two-stage research design was adopted. In the first stage, a survey was conducted with 240 professionals from large companies 120 in Brazil and 120 in Portugal, to identify and assess barriers to upstream supply chain visibility. The results were examined using degree-of-agreement analysis to determine the most relevant barriers. In the second stage, twelve supply chain management experts in Portugal and twelve in Brazil were invited to assess the interrelationships among the most critical barriers identified in the previous stage. Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) was employed to examine the interrelationships among the barriers, establish a hierarchical structure, and identify those that act as key driving factors as well as those that are primarily dependent on other barriers. Findings Twelve major barriers were identified, revealing both similarities and contextual differences between the two countries. Inadequate infrastructure emerged as the primary driving barrier in both contexts, as its mitigation reduces supply chain complexity and facilitates data standardization. However, Brazilian firms reported greater distrust in data sharing, whereas Portuguese firms highlighted insufficient skills to manage I4.0 technologies, indicating distinct levels of digital maturity. Research limitations/implications This study adopts a primarily descriptive approach to cross-country comparison, based on rankings, frequencies, and concordance indices, providing an exploratory assessment of differences between the Brazilian and Portuguese samples. Inferential statistical analysis may be incorporated in future research to further validate these findings. Furthermore, future studies are encouraged to replicate the proposed model in other contexts and to examine the longitudinal effects of barrier mitigation on logistics performance and sustainability outcomes. Practical implications From a managerial perspective, the results provide a prioritized roadmap by identifying high-driving variables that can generate broader performance improvements. Social implications This research contributes to the social aspect by detecting that visibility can help to curb unpaid work and pollution in communities neighboring the projects. Originality/value By integrating the TOE framework with ISM in a cross-country benchmarking perspective, this study offers a structured prioritization of barriers and practical guidance for strategic resource allocation.
Delgado et al. (Tue,) studied this question.