The LESG Index: A Data-Driven Composite Framework for Assessing Systemic Supply Chain Readiness through Logistics and ESG Performance

This study introduces the LESG index as a composite measure of national systemic read-iness for sustainable development, integrating logistics performance, governance quality, and sustainability outcomes within a unified data-driven analytical framework. Moving beyond outcome-oriented approaches based primarily on income metrics, the framework conceptualizes development as a structural condition emerging from the coherence of interdependent dimensions that also condition the effectiveness of digitally enabled sup-ply chain systems. Using cross-country data for 123 countries, the index is constructed through normalization procedures and Principal Component Analysis, and externally validated against GDP per capita within a diagnostic, non-causal framework. Cluster analysis is subsequently employed to identify distinct systemic development readiness regimes. The results reveal substantial cross-country heterogeneity that remains obscured in income-based or single-indicator assessments, highlighting coherent structural configurations of logistics capability, institutional quality, and sustainability alignment. These regimes differentiate countries beyond conventional development classifications and provide insight into varying readiness conditions for resilient and sustainable logis-tics and supply chain environments. Overall, the LESG index functions as a transparent diagnostic tool for comparative analysis and policy interpretation, reframing development in terms of systemic readiness rather than ex post economic performance and offering a macro-structural perspective relevant to data-driven and digital supply chain transformation.