The strategies of supply chain risk management – a synthesis and classification

The impact of operational risk on performance in supply chains and the moderating role of integration

Purpose

This study aims to empirically investigate the impact of operational risk (i.e. supply, manufacturing and demand risks) on supply chain performance and the moderating role of integration (i.e. supplier, internal and customer integrations) in mitigating the impact of these risks, respectively.

Design/methodology/approach

A research framework of hypotheses is tested by structural equation modeling with data collected from the fourth round of the high-performance manufacturing project.

Findings

It is revealed that manufacturing and demand risks negatively impact operational performance, and more importantly, internal and customer integrations help to reduce the impact of these two risks. Additionally, the effects of both supply risk and supplier integration are only significant for large firms.

Practical implications

Supply chain managers need to appropriately develop the levels of integration to mitigate the adverse impact of operational risk.

Originality/value

Operational performance is always threatened by different types of risk that adversely affect the supply, production and demand sides of manufacturing firms. Despite this fact, large-scale data-based empirical research on the impact of operational risk on the performance of supply chains has been scarce. This study aims to fill this literature gap.

Supply chain risk management strategies in normal and abnormal times: policymakers' role in reducing generic medicine shortages

Purpose

This paper links supply chain risk management to medicine supply chains to explore the role of policymakers in employing supply chain risk management strategies (SCRMS) to reduce generic medicine shortages.

Design/methodology/approach

Using secondary data supplemented with primary data, the authors map and compare seven countries' SCRMS for handling shortage risks in their paracetamol supply chains before and during the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Findings

Consistent with recent research, the study finds that policymakers had implemented few SCRMS specifically for responding to disruptions caused by COVID-19. However, shortages were largely avoided since multiple strategies for coping with business-as-usual disruptions had been implemented prior to the pandemic. The authors did find that SCRMS implemented during COVID-19 were not always aligned with those implemented pre-pandemic. The authors also found that policymakers played both direct and indirect roles.

Research limitations/implications

Combining longitudinal secondary data with interviews sheds light on how, regardless of the level of preparedness during normal times, SCRMS can be leveraged to avert shortages in abnormal times. However, the problem is highly complex, which warrants further research.

Practical implications

Supply chain professionals and policymakers in the healthcare sector can use the findings when developing preparedness and response plans.

Social implications

The insights developed can help policymakers improve the availability of high-volume generic medicines in (ab)normal times.

Originality/value

The authors contribute to prior SCRM research in two ways. First, the authors operationalize SCRMS in the medicine supply chain context in (ab)normal times, thereby opening avenues for future research on SCRM in this context. Second, the authors develop insights on the role policymakers play and how they directly implement and indirectly influence the adoption of SCRMS. Based on the study findings, the authors develop a framework that captures the diverse roles of policymakers in SCRM.

Blurred lines: the timeline of supply chain resilience strategies in the grocery industry in the time of Covid-19

To anticipate, adapt and respond to, and recover from disruptions, firms need to enhance supply chain (SC) resilience. The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 represented a unique opportunity to investigate it empirically. This study focuses on the exploration of the resilience strategies adopted to deepen their temporal characteristics and contribute to developing the current understanding of proactivity and reactivity, something that needs to be further investigated. Multiple-case study research was conducted considering 21 Italian companies in the grocery industry. Results show that with the outbreak of the pandemic, companies adopted a set of 21 strategies that spanned five resilience categories: redundancy, flexibility, agility, collaboration, and innovation. To explain the temporal characteristics of the identified resilience strategies we propose an original taxonomy that elaborates the previous theory by introducing two new dimensions related to the strategies’ timing (“when?” and “how long?”). Each dimension can be complemented with other sub-dimensions that explain the design and activation of resilience strategies, and their utilisation and availability. The proposed taxonomy broadens the narrow view offered by existing research on the temporal dimension of resilience, as multiple layers are needed to disentangle the temporal characteristics of different strategies. It also provides an original viewpoint on interpreting the strategies’ proactivity or reactivity as their boundary is increasingly blurred. Lastly, the study opens up to future investigations of the antecedents of the design and utilisation/activation of resilience strategies, as companies could rethink their managerial decisions based on the continuous evolution of their operating environment.

The interplay between relationships, technologies and organizational structures in enhancing supply chain resilience: empirical evidence from a Delphi study

Purpose

COVID-19 has highlighted the need to reflect on how firms should improve their supply chains (SCs) to enhance agility and robustness. Recent studies focus more on the short-term rather than on the long-term developments and lack insights regarding the enhancement of supply chain resilience (SCRES) based on the interplay between multiple levers. Therefore, using a long-term perspective, this research evaluates the interaction between three SCRES levers – relationships, technologies and organizational structures – to improve SCRES.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on an extensive literature review, multiple interviews and workshops, 13 future projections were developed. These projections were assessed using a two-round Delphi study that included 83 international experts from industry, academia and politics/associations to determine the probability of occurrence by 2035, their impact on SCRES and their desirability.

Findings

This study provides empirical evidence that the long-term enhancement of SCRES is achieved through the interplay of multiple levers rather than unilateral optimization. The study suggests that, by 2035, collaboration between SC partners will be a key factor for SCRES enhancement. Additionally, SC stakeholders should be aware that failing to invest in digital technologies will negatively impact the agility and robustness of future SCs. Furthermore, humans are expected to continue to play a major role, given that relationship-oriented tasks are perceived to remain important.

Originality/value

This paper adds to current literature, describing how SCRES can be improved in the long term through the interplay of multiple levers and the combination of robust and agile elements. Considering the importance of ensuring resilient SCs, this paper provides valuable insights for academics and practitioners.

Identification and Characterization of Supply Chain Operational Risk Profiles in Manufacturing Companies

Research on the interactions between risk, integration, and performance in supply chains (SCs) is increasingly attracting attention of researchers in recent years. Although risk usually has negative effects on performance, limited evidence has been provided to show whether companies differently exposed to operational risk (i.e., high, moderate, or low exposure) also have different levels of integration and operational performance. Therefore, this study aims to identify and characterize different profiles of operational risk (i.e., supply, manufacturing, and demand risks) between manufacturing companies along with considering contextual factors such as company size and industry type. Data are collected from the fourth round of the High Performance Manufacturing Project and subsequently analyzed by cluster analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Three different clusters have been identified: Two clusters are moderately and highly impacted by operational risk, respectively, while the other cluster is almost not impacted by manufacturing risk but highly impacted by supply risk and demand risk. The results also indicate that companies with different profiles of operational risk have different levels of integration and operational performance. An important contribution of the current study is the development of a hypothesized framework of interactions between operational risk, integration, and operational performance to provide opportunities for further research.

Aligning the risk hedging strategy with supplier collaboration and manufacturing competitiveness: a resource-based and contingency approach

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the alignment between the risk hedging strategy and supplier collaboration and its effect on manufacturing competitiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

Building on the resource-based view (RBV) and contingency theory (CT), this study is guided by a positivist philosophy and employs a survey strategy to investigate both the direct relationship between the risk hedging strategy and manufacturing competitiveness and the moderating role of supplier collaboration using data collected from 397 respondents of manufacturing firms. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique is used to analyze collected data and to present the research findings.

Findings

Consistent with the RBV and CT, study findings indicate that a significant positive relationship exists between the risk hedging strategy and manufacturing competitiveness and that this relationship becomes stronger when supplier collaboration is interactively aligned. Study findings provide important insights on the role of the risk hedging strategy in promoting manufacturing competitiveness. Furthermore, supplier collaboration as a moderator accounts for a significant proportion of the relationship between the risk hedging strategy and manufacturing competitiveness.

Research limitations/implications

Internal resources provide an explanation of the competitive differences among firms employing the risk hedging strategy. However, the environment presents opportunities for firms to acquire additional resources to fulfil the unique collaborative requirements of the risk hedging strategy. This study has used the moderation perspective to explain the interaction between the risk hedging strategy and supplier collaboration and its effect on manufacturing competitiveness. Future studies could incorporate other alignment concepts such as mediation and systems approach and compare the results to improve the theory.

Originality/value

This study can be considered as its kind in the supply chain management literature and both practitioners and researchers can benefit from the experience of resource-based and contingency analysis research and the results of aligning the risk hedging strategy with supplier collaboration for higher levels of manufacturing competitiveness.

COVID-19 and supply chain risk mitigation: a case study from India

Purpose

This study prioritizes the supply chain risks (SCRs) and determines risk mitigation strategies (RMSs) for the Indian apparel industry to mitigate the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic disruption.

Design/methodology/approach

Initially, 23 SCRs within the apparel industry are identified through an extant literature review. Further, a fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) is utilized to prioritize the SCRs considering the epidemic situations to understand the criticality of SCRs and determine appropriate RMSs to mitigate the shock of SCRs during COVID-19.

Findings

This study prioritized and ranked the SCRs within the Indian apparel industry based on their severity during the COVID-19 disruption. Results indicate that the demand uncertainty and pandemic disruption risks are the most critical. Based on the SCRs, the present work evaluated and suggested the flexibility and postponement mitigation strategies for the case under study.

Research limitations/implications

This study has novel implications to the existing literature on supply chain risk management in the form of the FAHP framework. Supply chain practitioners from the other industrial sectors can extend the proposed FAHP framework to assess the SCRs and identify suitable mitigation strategies. The results aid the practitioners working in an apparel industry to benchmark and deploy the proposed RMSs in their firm.

Originality/value

The present study is a unique and earlier attempt to develop a quantitative framework using FAHP to evaluate and determine the risk mitigation strategy for managing the SCRs during the coronavirus epidemic.

Improving supply chain resilience through industry 4.0: A systematic literature review under the impressions of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most severe supply chain disruptions in history and has challenged practitioners and scholars to improve the resilience of supply chains. Recent technological progress, especially industry 4.0, indicates promising possibilities to mitigate supply chain risks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the literature lacks a comprehensive analysis of the link between industry 4.0 and supply chain resilience. To close this research gap, we present evidence from a systematic literature review, including 62 papers from high-quality journals. Based on a categorization of industry 4.0 enabler technologies and supply chain resilience antecedents, we introduce a holistic framework depicting the relationship between both areas while exploring the current state-of-the-art. To verify industry 4.0's resilience opportunities in a severe supply chain disruption, we apply our framework to a use case, the COVID-19-affected automotive industry. Overall, our results reveal that big data analytics is particularly suitable for improving supply chain resilience, while other industry 4.0 enabler technologies, including additive manufacturing and cyber-physical systems, still lack proof of effectiveness. Moreover, we demonstrate that visibility and velocity are the resilience antecedents that benefit most from industry 4.0 implementation. We also establish that industry 4.0 holistically supports pre-disruption resilience measures, enabling more effective proactive risk management. Both research and practice can benefit from this study. While scholars may analyze resilience potentials of under-explored enabler technologies, practitioners can use our findings to guide industry 4.0 investment decisions.

Supply chain risk mitigation strategies during COVID-19: exploratory cases of “make-to-order” handloom saree apparel industries

Purpose

This study attempts to identify the supply chain risks (SCRs) induced during the COVID-19 disruption in an Indian handloom saree industry and determine suitable risk mitigation strategies (RMSs) to overcome the impact of the epidemic disruption.

Design/methodology/approach

This work determined 11 SCRs through an extensive literature review in the context of the handloom apparel industry and validated through the experts. Further, a multiple case-based approach is used in this research. Within case and cross-case analyses of four relevant Indian handloom “make-to-order” saree manufacturing firms are conducted to determine the severity of the SCRs considering the pandemic situations to identify appropriate strategies to mitigate the shock of SCRs.

Findings

This study identified the critical SCRs in the context of the Indian handloom “make-to-order” saree industries that emerged during the COVID-19 and proposed a risk mitigation strategy matrix (RMSM) to address the SCRs based on their criticality and predictability dimensions.

Research limitations/implications

The study provides a novel contribution to the body of knowledge on supply chain risk management (SCRM) in the form of the RMSM tool. Supply chain managers from the different sectors can extend the proposed RMSM to overcome the SCRs. Multiple case analyses facilitate supply chain professionals working in handloom apparel industries to benchmark and adopt the proposed RMSs in their firm.

Originality/value

This research is one of its kind that carried exploratory investigation of the handloom apparel industry cases to assess and determine the strategies for mitigating the SCRs caused during a pandemic outbreak.

Resilience-Enhancing Solution to Mitigate Risk for Sustainable Supply Chain—An Empirical Study of Elevator Manufacturing

As the complexity of supply chains increases, the enhancement of resilience for mitigating sustainable disruption risks in supply chains is an important issue. Quality function deployment (QFD) has been successfully applied in many domains to solve multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problems. However, research on developing two houses of quality to connect sustainable supply chain disruption risks, resilience capacities, and resilience-enhancing features in elevator manufacturing supply chains by using the MCDM approach is lacking. This study aims to develop a framework for exploring useful decision-making by integrating the MCDM approach and QFD. By applying the framework, supply chain resilience can be improved by identifying the major sustainable risks and the key resilience to mitigate these risks. Important managerial insights and practical implications are obtained from the framework implementation in a case study of the elevator manufacturing industry. To strengthen resilience and thus mitigate key risks, the most urgent tasks are to connect the working site and the backstage to enhance product development and design and to share real-time job information. When these features are strengthened, agility, capacity, and visibility can be improved. Finally, unexpected events lead to changes in supplier delivery dates, and factors such as typhoon and lack of critical capacities/skilled employees with the greatest impact can be alleviated. This framework will provide an effective and pragmatic approach for constructing sustainable supply chain risk resilience in the elevator manufacturing industry.

A supply chain risk management maturity model and a multi-criteria classification approach

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a supply chain risk management (SCRM) maturity model combined with a fuzzy TOPSIS classification method to evaluate and sort an organization into a pre-defined maturity level.

Design/methodology/approach

An axiomatic and prescriptive research method guided this study. Therefore, it proposes a prescriptive approach of maturity classification based on a theoretical SCRM maturity model combined with a multi-criteria decision technique.

Findings

The results of a pilot application indicated a consistent classification and the value of the model for diagnosing flaws and pointing directions for improving operational and disruption risk management. Its comprehensiveness allows applying it to supply chains of several industry sectors.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed model does not include all possible risks and could be revised in further developments. Also, adjustment of the maturity profiles of the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model requires a learning process from practical applications.

Practical implications

The adoption of the risk management maturity grid by practitioners may bring the benefit of a more objective and comprehensive evaluation of risk management processes in the supply chain context.

Social implications

An immediate social implication derives from the improvement actions that may result from the diagnosis of risk management vulnerabilities identified in the pilot application. In general, the proposed model has the potential to reduce risks, improve results and contribute to economic sustainability.

Originality/value

The maturity grid and decision model integrate overall aspects of risk management, bringing together managerial concepts to deal with a variety of supply chain operational risks. The combined multi-criteria classification procedure to sort the maturity level of an organization is also a novelty.

A systematic literature review on supply chain risk management: is healthcare management a forsaken research field?

Purpose

This paper aims to present a systematic literature review (SLR) to investigate how supply chain risk management (SCRM) is applied to the healthcare supply chains and which improvement opportunities are being missed in this segment.

Design/methodology/approach

This SLR used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method to answer three research questions: (1) Which are the main gaps concerning healthcare supply chain risk management (HCSCRM)? (2) What is the definition of HCSCRM? and (3) What are the risk management techniques and approaches used in healthcare supply chains?

Findings

The authors present a complete summary of the HCSCRM body of research, investigating research strings like clinical engineering and high reliability organizations (HROs) and its relations with HCSCRM; (1) This research revealed the five pillars of HCSCRM; (2) The authors proposed a formal definition for HCSCRM considering all the literature blocks explored and (3) The authors generated a list of risks present in healthcare supply chains resulting from extensive article research.

Research limitations/implications

The authors only reviewed international journal articles (published in the English language), excluding conference papers, dissertations and theses, textbooks, book chapters, unpublished articles and notes. In addition, the study did not thoroughly investigate specific countries' particularities concerning how the healthcare providers are organized.

Originality/value

The contribution of this article is threefold: (1) To the best of authors knowledge, there is no other SLR about HCSCRM published in the scientific literature by the time of realization of authors’ work, suggesting that is the first effort to fulfill this research gap; (2) Following the previous contribution, in this work the authors propose a first formal definition for HCSCRM and (3) The authors analyzed concepts such as clinical engineering and HROs to establish the building blocks of HCSCRM.

Promising research fields in supply chain risk management and supply chain resilience and the gaps concerning human factors: A literature review

BACKGROUND

Recent studies concerning supply chain management have shown that topics such as supply chain risk management (SCRM) and supply chain resilience (SCRes) are the new trends in supply chain management. Initial studies in the early 2000s developed frameworks to identify, measure and mitigate risks and assess/evaluate the degree of resilience of a company or supply chain. Recently, a large variety of studies has emerged, including more conceptual and review studies as well as more sophisticated, quantitative studies. However, studies on human-related factors are still lacking, and there is no systematic method to answer questions such as "What literature is available concerning human factors related to SCRM and SCRes?", "Which human factors contribute to SCRes?" and "Which human factor can amplify SC Risks?"

OBJECTIVE

The main goal of this paper is to conduct a systematic literature review to identify human factors that impact supply chain resilience and supply chain risk management.

METHOD

This study was performed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method. The objective of using this review protocol is to ensure that the review has the minimum amount of bias due to research expectations.

RESULTS

This study highlighted a summary of human-related risk and resilience factors as well as a discussion about these preliminary findings.

CONCLUSIONS

As our main conclusion, we highlight that human factors may generate significant risks in the supply chain, nevertheless, there are other human factors that must be nourished to obtain SCRes.

The impact of institutional voids on risk and performance in base-of-the-pyramid supply chains

Purpose

Base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) markets are frequently characterized by institutional voids. However, it remains unclear how institutional voids impact corporate and supply chain risk and performance. This intersection will be analyzed in this paper.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a systematic literature review of 94 BoP papers published between 2004 and 2019 in peer-reviewed, English-language journals available on Scopus. Drawing upon established frameworks for examining institutional voids, supply chain risks and BoP performance, frequency, and contingency analyses are conducted. Contingencies are established to provide insights into the associations between different constructs from the selected frameworks.

Findings

Supply chain risks are pervasive in the BoP discourse, especially when BoP markets are characterized by institutional voids. The frequency analysis of the constructs suggests that the key supply chain risks discussed in the BoP literature include social risk, credit risk, product market and operating uncertainties, knowledge and skill biases and decision-maker risks due to bounded rationality. The contingency analysis suggests that institutional voids are associated with supply chain risks that affect performance.

Research limitations/implications

A theoretical framework aligning three research streams in the context of BoP calls for future studies to test the causality of highlighted constructs that are significantly associated. The analysis is confined to the constructs that are taken into account based on specific conceptual frameworks.

Practical implications

The study provides practitioners with a framework to manage supply chain risks in BoP-related firms to enhance firm performance. Managers can use key dimensions of supply chain risk, such as the product market, the input market and operating uncertainties, to evaluate performance in the BoP context.

Originality/value

Specifically, this research has strengthened the inquiry of supply chain risks in the presence of institutional voids that may have an impact on firm performance

Benchmarking the relationship between supply chain risk mitigation strategies and practices: an integrated approach

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between various risk management strategies and risk management practices in order to design and hence enact a suitable supply chain risk mitigation (RM) plan. Additionally, this study proposes a hierarchical framework to explain the mutual relationship between supply chain risk management (SCRM) practices and strategies by considering the underlying dimensions between them.

Design/methodology/approach

An amalgamation of systematic literature analysis (SLA) and correspondence analysis (CA) has been performed to develop the conceptual framework. A real-life case of Indian petroleum supply chain has been considered to validate and explain the proposed model.

Findings

The results reveal three underlying dimensions, which associate the relationship between RM strategies. They are, risk adaptability of SC managers with a variance of 34.71%, followed by resource capability of the firm and the degree of sophistication of RM practices, with variances of 27.72 and 20.35%, respectively. Risk avoidance strategy comprises of practices such as supplier evaluation, technology adaption, flexible process and information security. On the other extreme, the risk sharing strategy includes revenue sharing, insurance, collaboration, public–private partnership and so on as essential RM practices.

Research limitations/implications

The study not only focuses on the distinction between RM strategies and practices, which were used interchangeably in the prior literature, but also provides an association between the same by exploring the underlying dimensions. These underlying dimensions perform a crucial role while developing a risk management plan. This study explicitly focuses on the RM step of SCRM process. Pre and post risk mitigation phases of SCRM process, such as risk assessment and risk monitoring, are beyond the scope of the current research.

Originality/value

The paper develops a framework for mapping various RM strategies with their corresponding practices by considering the Indian petroleum supply chain as a viable case study. Various theoretical and business implications are derived in the context of the developing country.

Exploring the relationship between ICT, SCM practices and organizational performance in agri-food supply chain

Purpose

This paper presents the concerns in agri-food supply chain. Further the research investigates the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in agri-food supply chain and determines the impact of supply chain management (SCM) practices on firm performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The theoretical framework was proposed for the study on the basis of existing literature. Data for the study was collected with the help of structured questionnaire from 121 executives and officers of the public food distribution agency. Partial least square (PLS)–structured equation modeling was employed to test the framework and hypotheses.

Findings

The results indicate that ICT and SCM practices (logistics integration and supplier relationships) have a significant relationship. Furthermore, SCM practices (information sharing, supplier relationship and logistics integration) have a significant and positive impact on performance of the organization.

Research limitations/implications

Further research could be carried out to test the moderation effect of SCM practices between ICT and organizational performance (OP). Extending the research study to the companies operating in other sectors can enhance the external validity of the study and improve the accuracy of parameters examined.

Practical implications

This study can be of interest to the agri-food industry as well as other industry practitioners interested in improving the performance of the organization from the view of supply chain.

Originality/value

The outcomes of this study have important implications that translate into a series of recommendations for the management of public food distribution as well as other agri-food-based supply chains.

A review of supply chain risk management: definition, theory, and research agenda

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review the extant literature on supply chain risk management (SCRM, including risk identification, assessment, treatment, and monitoring), developing a comprehensive definition and conceptual framework; to evaluate prior theory use; and to identify future research directions.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review of 354 articles (published 2000-2016) based on descriptive, thematic, and content analysis.

Findings

There has been a considerable focus on identifying risk types and proposing risk mitigation strategies. Research has emphasised organisational responses to supply chain risks and made only limited use of theory. Ten key future research directions are identified.

Research limitations/implications

A broad, contemporary understanding of SCRM is provided; and a new, comprehensive definition is presented covering the process, pathway, and objectives of SCRM, leading to a conceptual framework. The research agenda guides future work towards maturation of the discipline.

Practical implications

Managers are encouraged to adopt a holistic approach to SCRM. Guidance is provided on how to select appropriate risk treatment actions according to the probability and impact of a risk.

Originality/value

The first review to consider theory use in SCRM research and to use four SCRM stages to structure the review.