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Survey Results: 2025 Trends and Attitudes Report in Supply Chain and Sustainability
Episode 1504 • 10th November 2025 • Supply Chain Now • Supply Chain Now
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In this episode of Supply Chain Now, host Scott Luton and special guest co-host Maria Villablanca welcome Dr. Dinesh Davè, Professor & Director of Supply Chain Management at Appalachian State University, and Evan Junker, Chief Growth Officer at SPARQ360, to unpack insights from the 2025 Supply Chain Trends and Attitudes Report. The annual study, conducted by Appalachian State and SPARQ360, surveys hundreds of supply chain managers across the U.S. to reveal where leaders are investing, from AI and visibility platforms to sustainability and risk management.

Together, the panel discusses how familiarity and adoption of AI are rising, why the “ambition-action gap” still challenges sustainability progress, and what’s driving executives to balance cost efficiency, resilience, and environmental responsibility. They also explore how partnerships, collaboration, and customer-centered priorities are emerging as the new competitive advantage. Packed with practical insights and forward-looking data, this conversation offers a clear snapshot of where supply chain strategy is heading in 2025 and beyond.

Jump into the conversation:

(00:00) Intro

(01:08) Survey overview and key findings

(02:47) Fun warmup: favorite food and drink spots

(05:52) Appalachian State University supply chain program

(07:37) SPARQ360 and its role in the supply chain

(13:30) AI in supply chain: priorities and challenges

(19:03) Broader technology investments and priorities

(24:21) Data transformation and security

(24:37) Sustainability initiatives and drivers

(26:09) Political and regulatory impacts

(26:52) Statistical analysis and findings

(27:48) The ambition-action gap

(28:38) Technology’s role in sustainability

(29:01) Tariffs and geopolitical shifts

(33:16) Survey surprises and observations

(42:00) Future directions and international expansion

(43:10) Connecting with the panel


Resources:


This episode was hosted by Scott Luton and Maria Villablanca and produced by Trisha Cordes, Joshua Miranda, and Amanda Luton. For additional information, please visit our dedicated show page at: https://supplychainnow.com/survey-results-2025-trends-attitudes-report-supply-chain-sustainability-1504

Transcripts

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[00:00:25] Voice Over: Welcome to Supply Chain Now the number one voice of supply chain. Join us as we share critical news, key insights, and real supply chain leadership from across the globe. One conversation at a time.

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[00:00:48] Maria Villablanca: I’m great. I’m looking forward to this conversation. I mean, I keep hearing about everything that we’re going to be talking about, so to put it all in one conversation, really looking forward to this.

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[00:01:48] Maria Villablanca: Yeah, it should be.

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[00:02:17] Evan Junker: Hey, good to see you again, Scott. How are you?

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[00:02:24] Evan Junker: Oh

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[00:02:32] Dr. Dinesh Davè: I’m doing fantastic, thank you.

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[00:02:42] Maria Villablanca: Sun is shining, which is rare. So I’m happy

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[00:03:25] Evan Junker: Alright, so two confessions. I live in Germany now and I’ve lived here for a few years, so they have really good beer. I am not that big of a drinker, but I will say that Munich is only two hours east of me. And so I have gone to Octoberfest a few times and that is the best place to get there. And the amazing thing about that is the waitresses have these trays and they can carry, I mean they stack these massive things of beer on them and carry those around and it’s like you couldn’t go to a gym and lift more weight than they just carry around.

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[00:04:08] Dr. Dinesh Davè: Well, there are quite a few great Italian restaurants, which I prefer, but one is about 30 miles away from here is Wilkesboro, North Carolina. We just found it a few weeks ago. It’s called Mais and it’s a great Italian food. Their lasagna, their eggplant permission or outstanding. So I don’t drink beer, so because I get allergy and I don’t drink alcohol because I get allergy, but it’s absolutely fantastic food.

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[00:04:49] Maria Villablanca: My house, I invested in a nice pizza oven about a year and a half ago and I have not looked back. Let me tell you, I can’t do the spin, I can’t do that sort of pizza thing. I’m not going to try. But a good beer and a good pizza homemade in a pizza oven.

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[00:06:09] Dr. Dinesh Davè: Thank you, Scott. We have a very strong supply chain management program. I serve as the director of the supply chain management program here in Appalachian State University and College of Business. We have close to 300 students in the program and our placement rate for our undergrad students who graduate, it’s about 92%. That means 92% of the students get job within six months of the graduation. Some of them pursue higher education or some of them join their family business. We have in master of business administration and master of science in applied data analytics and supply chain is very popular concentration. Our students pursue internship summertime mainly, and they gain pragmatic experience as well as they open the door for employment opportunity. We have very active supply chain advisory board and we also supply chain to run cloud.

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[00:07:24] Maria Villablanca: Well, the way that the economy is right now, we all need that. So I think the higher the placement the better and that’s why we’re studying to get into the job market. So I think it’s a great result.

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[00:07:49] Evan Junker: My background is basically my career has been helping leaders address challenges and whether it’s growth and expansion or dealing with risk and complex market shifts. That’s kind of what my specialty is doing and that’s why I really like working at SPARQ360. That’s what SPARQ360 does. It helps supply chain leaders address those things, whether it’s cost quality and service challenges in their supply chain or dealing with sustainability requirements that are either regulatory or customer driven. SPARQ360 was built to help companies address those challenges. I think I told you this one before, but somebody once called us the get their hands dirty consultants and I think most people with me were greatly offended by that and it’s not because the get your hands dirty part, but that consultants word and that’s one thing. SPARQ360 is not, SPARQ360 is not made of consultants, it’s made of warehouse operators and supply chain managers and people that have spent their entire careers in the supply chain world.

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[00:09:11] Maria Villablanca: A hundred percent buzzwords kill. That’s my new motto.

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[00:10:14] Evan Junker: Yeah, and it’s the second year we’ve done that. As you said, we started out and I think we have some, Dr. Davè and I have some mutual connections and friends and at SPARQ360 we’re trying to find a way to get a very good read on not just where things are but where things are going.

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[00:11:15] Scott W. Luton: Love that. Next time we’re getting North Carolina barbecue when we get together. Okay, Evan, there we go. Dr. Davè, Evan shared some good background on the survey. What else would you add?

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[00:12:33] Scott W. Luton: Okay, that sounds really high. Dr. Davè, I wish I was smart enough to understand and break it down, but that’s why you’re here. That’s why you, Evan and Maria are here and Maria, both of them spoke to something, a really important thing. We’ve got to decipher the current state undoubtedly, but where we’re going, it’s really important to keep at least one half eyeball on that as well. Your thoughts, Maria?

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[00:13:25] Scott W. Luton: Well said Maria. And you’ve got your finger on the pulse like few in industry I know of. Okay. Now that we’ve set the table, I think I want to get into some of the key findings and folks we’re going to start with ai, right? It’s amazing, really both ends of the spectrum. It’s amazing. On one hand, all the really cool consequential work and outcomes we’re producing with AI on the other end of the bookend, other bookend rather. There’s a lot of frustration, right? Because we’ve got lack of business cases, lack of return on energy and investment on some AI initiatives. But let’s start with what the data from the research here tells us. So Evan, what did you glean on AI priorities from the survey?

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[00:14:58] Evan Junker: One thing we’re seeing in the field is people feel the pressure to do this perhaps before they should. And we were talking to somebody about three weeks ago and their company had spent, I’m not sure if it’s the high tens of thousands or the low six figures on some AI technology in the form of digital twins. I can talk a lot about digital twins. We’re doing a lot of work in that space right now it’s very popular because it integrates some of the visibility and the AI and things of that nature, but when people just feel they need to do this but they don’t necessarily plan it out, it ends up backfiring. So I would say that I’m excited to see where it’s coming. I’m excited to see the development in the field and I’m excited that people are still prioritizing it. It is a little bit scary that people are prioritizing spending rather than thinking about spending. We need to keep an eye on.

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[00:16:19] Dr. Dinesh Davè: This is very interesting. When we did the statistical analysis and compare 2024 data with 2025 data, it shows a significant difference between the two years where supply chain managers have viewed about AI and they’re more familiar in 2025. So that’s very encouraging. AI is going to be on rise, especially in supply chain and global supply chain area because they would like to enhance the consistency and reduce the error, et cetera. So AI is going be very helpful.

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[00:17:04] Maria Villablanca: I think we’ve lost the fear of AI certainly and that’s what the survey is showing us with familiarity, but I think it’s difficult to measure or companies are struggling to measure the value of ai. I do a little survey whenever I speak at an event, I tell everybody, raise your hands. I ask everybody, raise your hands if you’re using AI successfully within your organization. Not a lot of hands. I mean it’s not scientific. And then I say, okay, put your hands up if you’re using it in your personal life and everybody’s hands go up and so eventually what we use in our personal lives, we’ll bleed into our business life. So this is what’s coming, but I think we still have to bridge that gap between understanding and utilizing technology and actually explaining the value of it or finding the value of it.

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[00:17:49] Evan Junker: If I can add one thing to that because I think that’s a fantastic point. One of the things we’re seeing a lot of is people do feel like they have to do something. And you’re right, they can’t see the payback, they just do it. They don’t take the time to get the people in the room that need to be in the room to really have a strategy behind it. And what we’re seeing is when people do that, when people get the ownership from not just the people that want the results, your chief financial officer, your frontline workers that are going to be using it and the people that own that segment. When you get the right people in the room and you have a strategy and you can map out the implementation, you’re going to have a lot more success. And that’s where we’re seeing people be successful, but the hysteria behind AI and they just run and do it. Maria, you have an excellent point. That’s not going to get us anywhere and we’re not going to be able to measure results with that approach.

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[00:19:23] Scott W. Luton: Again, from the voices of over 300 supply chain managers, you’ll see from artificial intelligence on there all the way to robotics and automation, predictive analytics, supply chain platforms, visibility, which continues, I would argue to be more and more table stakes. Are we there yet? A hundred percent no. But gosh, if we’re not seeing deeper in our supply chain ecosystems in full visibility, we’ve got bigger challenges than we were five years ago. But let’s see here. Dr. Davè, some of your key observations from the survey data in terms of those broader technology investments and priorities.

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[00:20:53] Scott W. Luton: Excellent point. Dr. Davè and I should have mentioned that with this chart you’ll see there to Dr. Davè’s points, there should be spending average scores and they will be spending average scores. So look for that in the full-blown survey. Evan, what else would you add in terms of broader technology investments and priorities?

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[00:22:21] Scott W. Luton: Good stuff. Evan, Maria, your thoughts on these broader technology investments and priorities?

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[00:23:26] Scott W. Luton: Well said. Well said. It’s really important to your point, Maria, to call time out. Let’s not get caught up in the ever increasing velocity of the day or those buzz words that kill and take a step back and gain perspective and priorities there. Excellent points. Okay, you mentioned sustainability, Maria, and that’s where we’re going next.

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[00:24:34] Scott W. Luton: Excellent point, Evan. Excellent point. Let’s talk about sustainability. It’s been an interesting time for sustainability initiatives and the narrative that is applied to them. I would say I think that’s almost inarguable and we’re going to talk about some GLE here, but check out this information here, these quotes in terms of various drivers of sustainability from government regulations as you might expect to improve reputation and brand environmental action, improved evaluation financially, demand of customers, which of course Maria pointed out as a north star of course, recruitment of young talent. That’s a great one to include when it comes to what is driving our sustainability initiative. So let’s talk about it Evan, what are survey respondents thinking when it comes to sustainability and how have those political and regulatory shifts impacted their positions and actions?

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[00:26:09] Evan Junker: We don’t have a regulatory framework that’s strong in terms of sustainability. If you recall, it wasn’t that long ago we were talking about the SEC issuing guidelines and things of that nature. I think that’s kind of a thing of the past right now. But demand of customers is big and whether you are a manufacturer that’s dealing with a B2C product where you have consumer demand or if your customers are overseas and operating in Europe or Asia or Australia or any of the other places that have sustainability regimes, you have to still do your reporting, still have to report to them or they’re not going to use you. So these are the realities we live in and it’s not going away.

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[00:26:52] Dr. Dinesh Davè: This is very, very interesting because we used the factor analysis and clustering processes of statistics and we found out very interesting results and we validated some of the differences using discrim analysis. So what I’m trying to say is the interpretations of the results are so fascinating. For example, when we did the factor of the investment, how much whether companies should be investing in a sustainability or technology area, we got two distinct factors when I followed up with the clustering process, that means 60% or 63% of the respondents said that they highly value compared to 37% of the group they gave me about neutral response. So these are very encouraging results and implementing that and interpreting what Evan is talking about is very, very interesting.

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[00:28:04] Maria Villablanca: Look, sustainability isn’t going to go away, whether it’s driven by regulatory compliance or driven by the need to hire younger talent or even customers and what they demand, the reality is that it’s not going away. So companies do have that inaction issue because they don’t know how to measure the ROI of certain sustainability initiatives. And so I think this is a wider conversation, but one that is just not going to go away. Sometimes you are going to have capital intensive initiatives to launch some sustainability initiatives, but you are going to have to measure and weigh the risk of not implementing them. But this is where also technology can come in to help.

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[00:29:20] Evan Junker: Dr. Davè, you probably have the exact dates this survey was produced, but it was in late. It was after all the tariffs went into effect. This was not during the back and forth. This was not during any major shifts. This was after all the tariffs were in effect.

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[00:30:00] Dr. Dinesh Davè: That’s very, very interesting question because when we saw tariff and we thought that there’ll be a lot more respondents who will say negative, and my hypothesis was it could be negative impact. But when we look at that across the size of organization, some of the organizations said they have positive impact and it could be because their competitors cannot manage that tariff very well or they’re working in partnership or whatever the interpretation is. It’s very interesting. There is no specific, I saw that one particular when I divided the data, one specific size of the company or type of company, et cetera is across all over. So this was very encouraging in terms of looking at this data,

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[00:31:02] Evan Junker: Yeah, I think we all have a little bit of tariff fatigue. It’s real, but I think Dr. Davè is right. There’s this slightly negative tilt in terms of the impact. I didn’t see any major shifts based on size for segments as well. I think one thing that’s coming out of the discussion over the last year or two is this race for cheap and fast and all things just in time is giving away. And we’re going from that just in time to just in case era and geopolitics is not going to magically stabilize. So in my mind, I understand where people say, oh, it could have positive, it could have negative, but in reality it’s going to have an impact. The idea that magically tariffs will have no impact. That I don’t think is going to be the reality. The reality is it’s going to be a little more dynamic than we’re used to. Some of those AI technologies, some of those digital twins, some of those tools that are going to allow you to quickly assess what you need to do and how you need to adjust are going to be really important. Buckle up. It’s the new reality.

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[00:32:12] Maria Villablanca: I think it’s sort of like a fill in the blank. It’s insert here. It could be tariffs, geopolitical issues, economic crisis. We’re in a time of complete poly crisis and volatility. So it’s really about supply chains being able to respond. So I want to move away from the conversation as well about resilience. It’s how do we respond to whatever is insert here coming next. And I think that’s really what the order of the day is and the more visibility you can get, the more you can lean on technology, lean on digital twins, on collaboration, which we’re going to talk about all of these things, the more you can lean on them, the more you can adapt and perhaps maybe even thrive through these poly crisis.

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[00:33:22] Evan Junker: Well, I had expected some things to fall off. So I think the surprise was that there wasn’t a surprise. I had expected perhaps sustainability to go down in terms of the should be numbers, right? The ambition numbers. I had expected perhaps to see even more of an emphasis on the resilience side, but there’s that old saying, you can have it fast, good or cheap. You get to pick two out of three. Well, in this case you can have it cost effective, you can be resilient or you can have sustainability. Except it sounds like our supply chain managers are being told they have to do all three. They have to be cost effective, they have to build in resiliency and they have to have sustainability built in. And so I think what I’m seeing in this survey is more and more is being demanded of our supply chain managers. It’s the new reality, it’s the dictates from the board, the boss, the CEO, that’s what’s coming up. That’s the new normal.

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[00:34:39] Dr. Dinesh Davè: I was surprised that this year when we asked the question of international tariff impact and I thought there’ll be quite a few individuals with a negative, but I didn’t see that as a matter of fact, like 25, 28% of the respondents suggested will have positive impact. So that was kind of surprising to me. Secondly, when I look at the deeper analysis and when I found out the grouping, the data clustering process, it was very interesting to see that there are two distinct groups. One respondents were highly agreeable on the scale of one to five, the response were close to four and others the response was close to two and a half to three. So I mean these are the interesting observations that I saw. So it’s very encouraging.

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[00:35:48] Maria Villablanca: Yeah, I think we’re entering or we’ve entered the era of executive overwhelm to the point of Evan made everybody being asked to do a lot more with a lot less. That’s going to continue. And so I think the question is how do we rethink supply chains? How do we rethink business to some degree? How do we rethink leadership to be able to handle this sort of tremendous overwhelm that we feel to do things cheaper, faster, better, customizable, whatever it is that you want, all the toppings on the pizza, how do we do that? And so again, I hate to sound like a broken record, but we do need to take that step back and look at where technology serves us for this, where I can collaborate with the people around me on this to be able to build something long lasting or at least certainly lasting through this crisis that we’re in.

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[00:37:08] Scott W. Luton: That’s right. Good stuff there Evan. The supply chain, Greyhound track, the good old trifecta. All right, Dr. Davè, your favorite piece of feedback related to the overall survey initiative? What’s been one of your favorite things you’ve heard from the market? Dr. Davè

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[00:38:14] Scott W. Luton: Good stuff. Evan, I love the combination here between the been there done that boots on the ground operational side of the survey that you and the SPARQ360 team brings with Dr. Davè’s data analytics. Is that really what the voices are telling us? We got to be more data driven and I love that one punch I’m hearing here today. Evan, you’re one of your favorite pieces of feedback on the overall initiative this year, last year.

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[00:39:38] Scott W. Luton: I completely agree. And Maria, building on Evan’s response there, I love, let’s find the things that we should be automating, right? Let’s take the tedious task from the people and then let get those people together amongst the ecosystems, customer suppliers, team members, you name it. Let’s change those conversations rather than, oh, my millions of freight invoices are incorrect. Hey, technology can solve that, right? No more freight auditing or whatever the uncertainty example there and enable the people to change the conversations around innovation, serving the customer, new ideas, you name it. That’s a beautiful thing. Your thoughts, Maria?

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[00:41:01] Scott W. Luton: Maria, I love that partnership. If I got you quoted right, partnerships in collaborations is one of the newest, biggest competitive differentiators. It’s so true, you and Evan and Dr. Davè. There’s lots of, despite all the variants of responses and whether it’s tariffs or what we shouldn’t be spending, what we are spending, whatever. There’s some strong common themes here, both this conversation and the survey. That’s what we need to lean into for sure. Okay, so we’re coming down to home stretch to pick it back up on that Greyhound track analogy, Evan, the trifecta. Let’s see the full version of the 2025 supply chain trends and attitudes. Don’t forget those attitudes. Report releases October 14th. Our audience members can get their own copy of the survey. Its results. We’d love to hear your feedback as you dive into the data. You name it. Where do you agree with us here today? Where do you disagree? What’s your own take? We love to hear all of that. Evan, quick question for you and Dr. Davè for the survey. What’s next? Where do we go from here? Evan, your quick thoughts there?

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[00:42:25] Dr. Dinesh Davè: It’s very interesting what Evans mentioned because we just came back from France. Our program has made connection in Laha University outside Normandy. I just came back a couple of weeks ago from France and we met the individual in the Netherland who will be helping us collecting the data. So my colleague and I went to France as well as Netherland personally. So it’s very encouraging. So we have great support from SPARQ360 and we just cannot thank them enough.

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[00:43:20] Evan Junker: Well, a couple things. You can always grab me on my LinkedIn. I’m pretty active on LinkedIn and you can email me as well. It’s evan.junker@sparqthreesixty.com. But of course, if you’re listening to this on audio, Junker is spelled J-U-N-K-E-R. And we should also say for those on audio, SPARQ360 is spelled S-P-A-R-Q 3 6 0. And then our website has a whole plethora of information that hopefully can help you out. And we’d of course be happy to talk with you if you have any questions or concerns. In fact, last week we launched a three-tiered ESG framework for companies that are struggling to approach their sustainability programs. Very practical, very solution-oriented. Sorry, Dr. Davè. It’s not very academic, but it’s very practical approach for the 1, 2, 3 phase. And you can find some resources from that as well.

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[00:44:16] Dr. Dinesh Davè: I can be found very easily on App State University website. My email address is daveds@appstate.edu and that’s very easy to find. I’m also on LinkedIn. You’re welcome to connect with me through LinkedIn as well.

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[00:44:48] Maria Villablanca: Well, you know me, I’m a very shy girl, but you can see me on LinkedIn if you’re not following me already. That’s probably the best way is on LinkedIn. I do have a website as well, mariavillablanca.com and I’ve got a podcast, so as you know it, Scott, Transform Talks with Maria Villablanca and yep, just reach out to me.

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[00:46:02] Maria Villablanca: I knew you were going to ask me this, so I’ve prepared two just to make it easier. But the one thing that I would say is that the best supply chain leaders, they’re not waiting for the perfect conditions. They’re investing in visibility, piloting sustainability and building partnerships today. Now even in the middle of this uncertainty. So that’s my biggest takeaway. You don’t have to wait for the perfect conditions. The second takeaway, Scott, since it’s beer and pizza day, I’m going to say this, visibility, analytics and AI are the base ingredients, but sustainability is the topping that makes the supply chain worth sharing.

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[00:47:04] Maria Villablanca: Likewise. Thank you.

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[00:47:16] Evan Junker: Thank you. Thanks. It’s always great to be with you.

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[00:47:43] Dr. Dinesh Davè: Thank you so much. I really appreciate all your support and we look forward to working with you and SPARQ360 and other organizations. We are looking forward to it,

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[00:48:33] Voice Over: Join the Supply Chain Now community. For more supply chain perspectives, news and innovation, check out supplychainnow.com. Subscribe to Supply chain Now on YouTube and follow and listen to Supply Chain Now wherever you get your podcasts.

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