Building Resilient Supply Chains with Information Systems: Key Lessons from Médecins Sans Frontières Logistique During the COVID-19 Crisis

This research aims to analyze the resilience of humanitarian supply chains, with a focus on the role of information systems, through a case study of Médecins Sans Frontières Logistique during the COVID-19 pandemic. The empirical research methodology is based on a qualitative study, which includes semi-structured interviews with key actors and operators from the Médecins Sans Frontières Logistique during the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and 2021. The paper highlights the crucial and inherent role of information systems on each of the four dimensions of humanitarian supply chain resilience: reorganization capacity, collaboration, flexibility, and humanitarian culture. Drawing on recent theoretical works on supply chain resilience as well as empirical results, the paper underscores the importance of information systems and proposes a conceptual model of the relationship between humanitarian supply chain resilience and the role of information systems. The value of this research is linked to its empirical and qualitative study of a Non-Governmental Organization logistics operation during an international crisis, which contributes not only to the literature on resilience, but also provides guidance for managers to target their actions responsively and proactively to enhance resilience over time.. Copyright © 2023 by SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Enhancing supply chain resilience in SMEs: the role of business and political ties

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has created disruptions across the supply chain that are beyond the resources of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to effectively deal with. This study aims to examine the idea that top managers' business and political ties can play direct roles in enhancing SCR in SMEs during COVID-19 by providing access to valuable resources. The study further investigates integrative capability as an underlying mechanism through which the effects of business and political ties can be transformed into enhanced SCR.Design/methodology/approachResponses from 217 SMEs in the country of Jordan were received via an online survey. The measurement and structural models were tested using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique.FindingsThe study found that business and political ties are positively related to SCR. However, integrative capability fully mediates the relationship between business ties and SCR, whereas it partially mediates the relationship between political ties and SCR.Research limitations/implicationsThe study examined only the direct and indirect impacts of business and political ties on SCR. It could be extended by exploring the conditions under which they influence SCR.Originality/valueThe study explicates the role of top managers' business and political ties on improving SCR in a developing country context. It further examines the mediating role of integrative capability in the relationships between business and political ties and SCR.

The future of industry 4.0 and supply chain resilience after the COVID-19 pandemic: Empirical evidence from a Delphi study.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major supply chain disruptions and unveiled the pressing need to improve supply chain resilience (SCRES). Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is a promising lever; however, its future in supply chain risk management (SCRM) is highly uncertain and largely unexplored. This paper aims to evaluate I4.0's potential to improve SCRES in a post-COVID-19 world. Based on current literature and multiple workshops, 13 future projections on potential I4.0 application areas in SCRM were developed. A two-round Delphi study among 64 SCRM experts with digital expertise was conducted to evaluate and discuss the projections regarding their probability of occurrence until 2030, their impact on SCRES, and their desirability. A fuzzy c-means algorithm was applied to cluster the projections based on the expert assessments. The expert evaluations led to three clusters on I4.0 application in SCRM: Four projections on generating data, increasing visibility, and building digital capabilities received considerable approval and are reliable to improve SCRES in 2030. Four projections enabling data sharing and processing were predominantly supported and demonstrated realization potential for 2030. Finally, five projections that require major supply network adaptations were deemed unlikely to improve SCRES in 2030. This paper answers several research calls by presenting empirical evidence on the pathway of I4.0 implementation in SCRM following the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it evaluates a holistic set of technologies and indicates prioritization potentials to achieve SCRES improvements.

E‐commerce and supply chain resilience during COVID‐19: Evidence from agricultural input e‐stores in China

COVID‐19 has caused major disruptions to agricultural supply chains around the world. Researchers and policy‐makers are interested in identifying means to reduce the disruptive effects caused by the pandemic. We investigate the impacts of COVID‐19 on the operation of e‐commerce stores (in short, e‐stores) specialising in agricultural inputs. The difference‐in‐differences method (DID) is employed to estimate the causal relationship between COVID‐19 and online sales of agricultural inputs using data from 54,244 agricultural input e‐stores registered in 118 prefecture‐level cities across 15 provinces and hosted on two major Chinese e‐commerce platforms. The results show that COVID‐19 led to a substantial growth in monthly sales of agricultural input e‐stores, and this growth of online sales varied across store scales and by types of agricultural inputs. In particular, e‐stores selling seeds and seedlings experienced a larger growth in sales than stores selling agricultural machinery and implements, and the mid‐ and larger‐scaled e‐stores experienced more growth of sales than micro‐ and small‐scaled e‐stores. Further analysis reveals that the growth of online sales of agricultural inputs was driven mainly by an increase in the quantity of customer orders (QCO). The findings of this paper underscore the importance of e‐commerce in ensuring the resilience of the agricultural supply chain during the pandemic period.

The effects of supply chain viability on supply chain performance and marketing performance in case of large manufacturing firm in Ethiopia

Goal: COVID-19 has put the supply chain (SC) through exceptional shocks and disruptions that have never been seen before. It put existing SCs' capabilities to a severe test. Moreover, due to the pandemic, demand and supply have been imbalanced, which has led to questions about societal and SC survivability. This study examines the effects of firms' SC viability on SC and marketing performance.<br />Design/Methodology/Approach: An explanatory research design was employed to examine the relationship between the antecedents of SC viability, SC, and marketing performance using partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM). Moreover, 5-point Likert scale questionnaires are used as a data collection instrument.<br />Results: The finding shows that both SC resilience, SC agility, and sustainable SC have a positive effect on SC performance. Further, SC viability [SC resilience + SC agility + sustainable SCJ has a positive effect on SC performance. SC performance also play partial mediation between SC viability and marketing performance.<br />Limitations of the investigation: The study focused only on a limited number of large manufacturing companies in Ethiopia, which excluded other medium- and small-sized firms due to the ongoing war in the northern part of the country. Moreover, the study focused only on one dimension of sustainability (social aspect).<br />Practical Implications: The study shows firms that the traditional risk assessment methods are insufficient and will no longer be enough to overcome severe disruption. Instead, the study recommends firms work using anticipatory failure determination (AFD) and a red teaming approach to prepare for 'unknown unknown' events. Besides, the study brings a practical and holistic model that shows the relationship between SC viability and SC and marketing performance.<br />Originality/Value: None of the studies so far in SC have tested the concepts of viability systems in SCM by adopting from disciplines such as ecological modeling, biological, and cybernetics using PLS-SEM. Consequently, it contributes to existing literature by showing new empirical evidence of a strong relationship between SC viability, SC performance, and marketing performance.

Supply chain resilience: A conceptual evolution analysis

Research related to resilience in the supply chain has taken great interest in recent years, especially due to major disruptions such as COVID-19. Generating actions to minimize the impacts caused by these disruptive events has become a paramount in operations management and has become a strategic capability of the supply chain. Therefore, it is essential to know how the concept of resilience has evolved by identifying their capabilities. For this purpose, a systematic literature review was carried out, focused on gathering the concepts of resilience in supply chain management present in the literature, generating a keyword correlation analysis to establish their action approaches, and jointly analyzing the conceptual evolution. From this literature, a new definition is proposed integrating the different aspects found. Finally, conclusions are exposed. © 2023 Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. All rights reserved.

Supply chain resilience and absorptive capacity: crisis mitigation and performance effects during Covid-19

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships of supply chain resilience (SCR) and absorptive capacity (ACAP) with firm performance by specifically examining the crisis-mitigating effects under an environmental jolt such as COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on data from a questionnaire survey among Danish manufacturing and transport and logistics companies with 174 respondents. Findings: While the adaptive capabilities associated with both SCR and ACAP are well recognized in extant SCM literature, less is known about their boundary conditions. Examining the functioning of SCR and ACAP amid the COVID-19 crisis, this study finds that both SCR and ACAP related positively to firm performance. However, while the positive relationship between SCR and firm performance was partly mediated by better crisis-mitigation, the results of this study did not find that a similar mechanism was present for ACAP. These results suggest notable refinements of current understandings of SCR and ACAP. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited by the cross-sectional design, the focus on Danish companies only, and by examining only two industries. Hence, comparisons to other countries and other industries would be of significant interest. Practical implications: Investing in SCR and ACAP to different extents provides for a complementary mix of longer-term opportunity-generating dynamic capabilities and more short-term crisis-mitigating dynamic capabilities. Firms will benefit from both types of dynamic capabilities during a crisis, but the latter will be more important for mitigating specific crisis impacts. Originality/value: This paper extends current theorizing on ACAP and SCR by adding the distinction between the long-term opportunity generating dynamic capabilities and short-term crisis-mitigating dynamic capabilities. This paper provides novelty by empirically examining this theorizing by investigating the performance- and crisis-mitigating effect of SCR and ACAP in the light of the COVID-19 crisis. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

A systematic literature review on supply chain resilience in SMEs: learnings from COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThe study aims to review state-of-art literature on supply chain resilience in SMEs in the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and provides a comprehensive view of insights gained, gaps identified and suggests potential areas of future research.Design/methodology/approachUsing a thorough search strategy, 46 articles were found relevant for this study. Each of these articles was further reviewed, classified and analysed to highlight the development of literature in this field and identify the significant focal area of research in this domain.FindingsThe classification of studies indicates a growing number of articles in the last two years with a significant focus on multiple industries and survey-based research design. The study's findings suggest that literature on supply chain resilience in SMEs falls into four categories: supply chain resilience principle, impact of COVID-19 pandemic on SMEs, strategies for developing supply chain resilience and role of Industry 4.0 technologies in supply chain resilience. We also identified knowledge gaps and suggested directions for future research to catalyse studies at the interface of supply chain resilience, SMEs and COVID-19 pandemic.Research limitations/implicationsThe generalisability of this study can be limited to a specific population of online databases and selected time periods chosen for a particular period.Originality/valueThe study provides a structured literature review on studies published between 2012 and 2022 for the use of academicians and practitioners. Findings will be of great value for SMEs to improve their resilience during the uncertain business environment.

The impact of procurement digitalization on supply chain resilience: empirical evidence from Finland

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the role of procurement digitalization in reducing uncertainty in the supply chain (SC) and how it relates to mitigating SC risks and improving SC resilience (SCRES).Design/methodology/approachBased on survey data collected from the procurement functions of 147 Finnish firms, this study conceptualizes data analytics, information sharing and procurement process digitalization as drivers of procurement digitalization and investigates their impact on SC risk management and SCRES by using partial least squares path modeling.FindingsProcurement digitalization through data analytics and digital process maturity requires effective information sharing among SC partners and SC risk management to be able to improve SCRES. Procurement digitalization increases information-processing capacities and reduces uncertainty in the SC.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the understanding on the relationships between procurement digitalization and SCRES.

Improving supply chain resilience from the perspective of information processing theory

PurposeSupply chain resilience (SCR) has attracted much attention in the context of the high uncertainty caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), local regional conflicts and natural disasters. Based on information processing theory (IPT), this study investigates the role of supply chain information processing capability in enhancing SCR through supply chain governance (SCG), under different conditions of environmental uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachThe hypothetical model is tested by using hierarchical regression on the primary samples collected from the Chinese manufacturing industry.FindingsThe results indicate that supply chain information processing capability has a significant positive effect on SCR. Also, SCG plays a mediating role between supply chain information processing capability and SCR. Furthermore, environmental uncertainty positively moderates the effect of supply chain information acquisition and supply chain information analysis on relational governance. However, environmental uncertainty only positively moderates the effect of supply chain information analysis on contractual governance.Originality/valueThis is the first study to explain the effect of information processing capability on SCR from the supply chain perspective, while also exploring the mediating role of SCG between SCR and supply chain information processing capacity, based on IPT.

Resilience of Food Supply Chains - a Dynamic Capability Approach

There are many examples of increasing risk exposure in supply chains in recent years. The Covid-19 pandemic proved to be a huge challenge in the last two years, and the war in Ukraine is currently creating uncertainty in the food industry. In our study, we specifically identify and examine risks threatening the food supply chains. In addition to classifying risks, we examine the dynamic capabilities that companies need to have when operating in the downstream supply chain processes in order to mitigate these risks. The research uses a qualitative methodology and explores the range of required corporate capabilities through interviews with manufacturers as focal companies of a food supply chain. We hypothesise that sensing capability and flexibility, as well as communication and coordination skills, will be key to managing threats. As a result of our study, we can ascertain that the security of supply chain operations does not only depend on supply chain capabilities.

Improving agility and resilience of automotive spares supply chain: The additive manufacturing enabled truck model

The global supply chain disruption by the COVID-19 pandemic is difficult, if not impossible, to estimate as over 94% of the top 1000 fortune companies were badly affected. The need for building resilient supply chains to mitigate the effect of such disruptions is rising rapidly than ever before across the global business spectrum. Building resilience in the automotive spare parts (ASPs) supply chain is critically important as any disruption to automotive spares supply chain will affect the operations of the logistics sector, the backbone of global supply chains. This research work contributes to improving the resilience of the automotive spare parts supply chain by proposing a Viable Supply Chain (VSC) framework design that incorporates Additive Manufacturing (AM) enabled trucks in the automotive spares supply chain network. Based on the proposed model, conceptual case models are developed and tested with proposed AM enabled truck manufacturing closer to end customer. A heuristic approach called shortest time heuristic is also proposed to solve the routing and scheduling of an AM enabled truck to deliver customers' orders of the spare parts through an online platform. Importantly, the study demonstrate how additive manufacturing can help the ASPs industry to switch from the existing practice of make-to-stock to a more efficient inventory management and cost saving make-to-order model while also achieving resilience and sustainability in by providing a source of spares support for discontinued models of vehicles.

Mitigating the "Cobra Effect" when pursuing organizational resilience

This paper is a systematic literature review of organizational resilience. It aims to identify the reasons for the unintended consequences that may occur when organizations pursue resilience and how these unintended consequences could be mitigated. The analysis of 68 articles published between 2017 and 2022 indicates that organizations could have unintended consequences when pursuing organizational resilience, resulting from the organizational resilience conceptualization, models, practices, levels and the paradox of change. Consequently, several unintended consequences may arise when implementing a resilience strategy. This includes lessened leadership effectiveness, the pursuit of unrealistic objectives, low organizational creativity and innovation, overreliance on a single strategy, compromised values, fragile relationships, a short-term focus and organizational culture. Therefore, the overall construct aspects of organizational resilience should be researched and analyzed further by gathering additional empirical data that sheds more light on these issues. Aside from the challenge of defining and measuring organizational resilience, there is variability in how organizational resilience is developed. It has also been operationalized in various ways, with limited insight into empirical methods to identify resilience against future hardships. Although the notion is promising, it has been criticized for being ambiguous and lacking a uniform explanation, diminishing its relevance for practice.

Just-in-time for supply chains in turbulent times

The Covid-19 pandemic and other recent disruptions in the early 2020s led to sections in the business press blaming just-in-time (JIT) practices for operational failings. Consequently, there are calls for moving away from JIT toward holding more inventory as preparation against future disruptions, which is referred to as just-in-case. The academic community is also divided. Some scholars argue that JIT is not resilient, while others maintain that JIT can continue providing superior performance even with disruptions. Motivated by this debate, we discuss various misconceptions about JIT that underlie this debate. Furthermore, we present different ways to adapt JIT for turbulent environments and argue that companies can improve their supply chain performance if JIT supply chain segments are chosen fittingly—even more so—during disruptions. © 2023 The Authors. Production and Operations Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Production and Operations Management Society.

The impact of governmental COVID‐19 measures on manufacturers' stock market valuations: The role of labor intensity and operational slack

This study investigates the impact of the Chinese government's Level I emergency response policy on manufacturers' stock market values. We empirically examine the roles of human resource dependence (labor intensity) and operational slack within the context of supply chain resilience. Through an event study of 1357 Chinese manufacturing companies, we find that the government's emergency response policy triggered statistically significant positive abnormal returns for manufacturers. However, we also find that there exists a negative impact on abnormal returns for manufacturers that are labor‐intensive, giving rise to arguments based in resource dependence theory. In addition, the results indicate the positive role played by operational slack (e.g., financial and inventory slack) in helping manufacturers maintain operations and business continuity, effectively mitigating risks and adding to the manufacturers' resilience. With these findings, we contribute to operations and supply chain management by calling attention to the importance of human resource redundancy while at the same time identifying financial slack and inventory as supply chain resilience strategies that were able to mitigate pandemic‐related risks.

The Impact of Perceived Benefits on Blockchain Adoption in Supply Chain Management

Globalization has prompted enterprises worldwide to increasingly seek the optimal supply chain configuration. However, outsourcing, shortened product life cycles, and a reduced supply base severely weaken supply chain risk tolerance. With the emergence of blockchain, enterprises see an opportunity to mitigate supply chain risks. The purpose of our research is to explore supply chain managers' intention to adopt blockchain technology from the perspective of supply chain risk management. Using a survey sample of 203 managers in China and the USA, we explored the impact of four perceived benefits of blockchain technology on supply chain risk resistance by extending the technology acceptance model. The results show that the traceability, transparency, information sharing, and decentralization of blockchain can enhance the perceived usefulness of blockchain in supply chain resilience and responsiveness, and the ability to withstand disruption risks and supply and demand coordination risks encountered in the supply chain, thus promoting the adoption of the technology. In addition, the relationships between supply chain resilience and blockchain technology adoption and between supply chain responsiveness and blockchain technology adoption are more salient for managers with high levels of uncertainty avoidance.

Development and Application of a Specialized Set of Engineering Tools to Enhance Enterprise and Supply Chain Resilience

Complexity, dynamism, sudden changes, and disruptive events (COVID-19, Ukraine war, etc.) have become the norm in the current business world. Companies and their related supply chains are trying to adapt to a business reality fed by disruptive events to try to guarantee their survival in the long term. It is essential to highlight that some disruptive events are more predictable than others. However, even for the non-predictable events, early symptoms will facilitate their detection. Thus, it is critical to provide quantitative tools to identify patterns and warn companies to activate resilience plans and preventive actions. These tools should include features such as multivariate analysis for pattern recognition, disruptive events prediction, and prioritization of the preventive actions related to each disruptive event to support companies in enhancing their resilience capacity. In addition, the entire organization must be committed and convinced of the benefits that improved resilience will bring. For this reason, it is also critical to develop mechanisms to make workers aware of the importance of being resilient and promote the implementation of the resilience dimension in their quality systems, which is an opportunity for an organization to get formally certified in this area. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Identifying Critical Factors Affecting the Resilience of Additive Manufacturing Architecture Supply Chain

Building a resilient and stable supply chain has become an important strategy for many countries. Studies have shown that the application of additive manufacturing (AM) technology in construction can help offset the negative impact of "black swan events” on supply chains. This study examines the construction industry based on AM technology and analyzes the impact of changes in the industry chain on the supply chains. The specific factors that affect the resilience of AM construction supply chains were identified through literature research and expert interviews, including 7 dimensions and 21 secondary indicators. An intuitionistic fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (IFAHP) evaluation model was established. Finally, an example of an AM construction manufacturer, YC Enterprise, was introduced to quantify the various factors and determine the weights. The results show that the essence of building a supply chain with AM is creating a closed-loop supply chain. The impact of AM construction manufacturers on supply chain resilience (SCR) is the most critical, followed by that of regulatory authorities and general contractors. The AM construction SCR assessment index system and evaluation method constructed in this paper have important significance in filling the gap in the quantitative evaluation of the impact of AM on supply chains.

Does online–offline channel integration matter for supply chain resilience? The moderating role of environmental uncertainty

PurposeDrawing on dynamic capability theory, this study investigates how online–offline channel integration (OOCI) affects a firm's supply chain resilience and how such an effect is moderated by market turbulence and regulatory uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 273 Chinese firms that conduct online and offline business and hierarchical regression analysis were used to examine the research model.FindingsThe results suggest that the effect of OOCI on supply chain resilience differs in terms of its dimensions (i.e. information integration, transaction integration and service integration). While information integration and service integration were positively associated with supply chain resilience, transaction integration had a non-significant relationship with supply chain resilience. Moreover, market turbulence negatively moderated the effect of transaction integration and positively moderated the effect of service integration. Regulatory uncertainty positively moderated the effect of transaction integration and negatively moderated the effect of service integration. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.Originality/valueThis study examines the effect of OOCI on supply chain resilience. It further explores the influence of market turbulence and regulatory uncertainty on the relationship between OOCI and supply chain resilience.

Supply chain resilience strategies and their impact on sustainability: an investigation from the automobile sector

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to propose a framework comprising supply chain (SC) resilience strategies to handle low-frequency high impact disruptive events. This study also evaluates the impact of SC resilience strategies' implementation on the triple bottom line of SC sustainability.Design/methodology/approachA hybrid three-phased method is proposed to meet the research objectives of this study. In the first phase, this study uses the Delphi technique to select SC resilience strategies and SC sustainability dimensions. In the second phase, the best–worst method is used to assess the relative weights of resilience strategies. Finally, in the third stage, summative Likert scoring is used to understand the impact of SC resilience strategies on the SC sustainability triple bottom line.FindingsThe outcomes reveal that firms give due importance to inter-organizational relationships and supplier nearness for supply continuity. In the sustainability context, the obtained scores proved that resilience strategies have the maximum impact on economic sustainability, followed by environmental sustainability.Research limitations/implicationsTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that examines aspects of SC resilience strategies and quantifies their impact on the triple bottom line of SC sustainability. This study is specific to the automobile sector;sectoral diversity may expose similarities and dissimilarities in the approach.Practical implicationsThe outcome establishes that supplier–manufacturer relationships need to be strengthened further to tackle any future uncertainties. Besides, supplier location decisions may also be revisited. The strategies proposed will aid SC managers to make informed decisions to prepare for uncertain events.Originality/valueIn the face of uncertain events, often SCs trade-off sustainability in pursuit of resilience. It manifests that resilience is a prerequisite for SC sustainability. While planning SCs, organizations often choose either sustainability or resilience. Thus, this study acknowledges the need to develop effective SC resilience strategies that are in harmony with the sustainability agenda.