In an era dominated by digital platforms, the quest for excellence in supply chain and logistics necessitates a transformative approach. Traditional supply chain and logistics practices, while efficient, now contend with the necessity for digital transformation to address unpredictable consumer behavior, fast-changing geopolitical environments and hard to-predict events related to climate effects, leading to the overarching need for adaptive, digitally networked capabilities. Yet, despite the promise of digital platforms to revolutionize logistics and supply chain management, many organizations grapple with the challenges of adoption, including investment costs, integration with legacy systems, and the realization of tangible benefits over current practices.

Therefore, the 'Transformative Logistics Excellence Model,' specifically designed to optimally employ digital platforms for enhancing operations within supply chains and logistics. The model focuses on overcoming the manifold barriers to digital integration, promoting operational efficiency, and improving data transparency and knowledge management across supply chain and logistics, which are identified from the literature. Developed through the application of the Gioia methodology, a framework for the development of new concepts in inductive research – particularly in the context of change and organizational behavior, the model seeks to guide supply chain and logistics organizations to facilitate digital transformation onto logistics platforms. It provides a structured approach for integrating networked digital technologies into logistics operations, ensuring improved execution in transitioning to platform-enabled logistics excellence.

By bridging the gap between the promise of digital platforms and their effective implementation, the model aims to facilitate a shift towards a more resilient, transparent, and adaptive logistics and supply chain ecosystem. This study contributes to the debate on digital transformation in logistics and supply chain management by offering a pragmatic, evidence-based model of transformation to realize the potential of digital platforms in achieving logistics excellence. The research opens new avenues for empirical investigation, inviting case-by-case application tests to assess before and after impacts, using the model to inform analytical modeling and reconsidering supply chain optimization goals/constraints, and testing model validity across broader contexts.