Supplying resilience through assessing diversity of responses to disruption

Crop Diversification for Ensuring Sustainable Agriculture, Risk Management and Food Security

Agriculture faces growing challenges from climate change, pest pressures, and market instability. Crop diversification offers a sustainable strategy to enhance resilience and reduce the risks of monoculture. This review examines crop diversification as a response to these challenges, with a focus on its applications in sustainable agriculture, risk management, and food security. Strategies such as spatial, temporal, genetic, and intercropping diversification enhance soil health, improve pest management, and boost resilience to climate variability. The review highlights key principles, including ecological resilience, risk distribution, and resource optimization. By adopting diverse crops, farmers can mitigate soil degradation, reduce pest outbreaks, and stabilize incomes. Successful case studies from various regions, such as integrated rice-fish farming and agroforestry, demonstrate how diversification can improve productivity and sustainability. However, challenges remain, such as knowledge gaps, market access issues, and policy limitations. The review concludes with recommendations for future research and policy interventions, stressing the need for tailored diversification strategies, better support systems, and further exploration of innovative practices. This overview underscores the potential of crop diversification to build resilient, sustainable agricultural systems while addressing global food security concerns.

Process ambidexterity driven by environmental uncertainty: balancing flexibility and routine

Purpose

This study aims to extend ambidexterity theory from the perspective of organisational learning and examine how process ambidexterity, which comprises operational flexibility and operational routine, responds to environmental uncertainty and ultimately reduces organisational risks.

Design/methodology/approach

This study tests the hypotheses by analysing 464 annual reports of 115 listed companies in the Chinese agricultural and food industry using content and secondary data analyses. Four case studies are also provided.

Findings

The results show that (1) environmental uncertainty has a positive effect on either operational flexibility or operational routine; (2) both operational flexibility and operational routine have negative effects on organisational risks, supporting the view that process ambidexterity mediates the relationship between environmental uncertainty and organisational risks; and (3) organisational slack plays the role of “double-edged sword” by negatively moderating the effect of environmental uncertainty on operational flexibility and positively moderating the effect of environmental uncertainty on operational routine.

Originality/value

In an uncertain environment, companies are exposed to greater risk. This study contributes to risk management in three ways: first, it extends ambidexterity theory to process management and proposes how process ambidexterity balances operational flexibility and routines. Second, it distinguishes between the different conditions under which flexibility or routines are superior. Third, it explains the mechanisms related to how organisations can resolve environmental uncertainty into risk through process ambidexterity.

Linking entrepreneurial orientation and supply chain resilience to strengthen business performance: an empirical analysis

Purpose

This study examines the interactions between entrepreneurial orientation, supply chain resilience (SCRES) as well as the financial and commercial dimensions of business performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on a literature review, the authors develop a research model to identify positive relationships between five specific dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation, SCRES and business performance based on the dynamic capabilities view. The hypotheses are then empirically validated by applying partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on survey data obtained from a questionnaire and 168 global companies.

Findings

The results partially support the hypotheses and suggest that entrepreneurial activities complement the resilience of supply chains to sudden disruptions and therefore also foster competitive advantage.

Originality/value

The relationships between entrepreneurial orientation, SCRES and business performance are examined and validated empirically in a single model, bridging the gap between these distinct research streams and shedding further light on supply chain risk management.

The elements of resilience in the food system and means to enhance the stability of the food supply

Food systems are increasingly exposed to disruptions and shocks, and they are projected to increase in the future. Most recently, the war in Ukraine and Covid-19 pandemic has increased concerns about the ability to secure the availability of food at stable prices. This article presents a food system resilience framework to promote a national foresight system to better prepare for shocks and disruptions. Our study identified four key elements of resilience: system thinking through science and communication; redundancy of activities and networks; diversity of production and partners; and buffering strategies. Three national means to enhance resilience in the Finnish food system included domestic protein crop production, renewable energy production, and job creation measures. Primary production was perceived as the cornerstone for food system resilience, and the shocks and disruptions that it confronts therefore call for a sufficient and diverse domestic production volume, supported by the available domestic renewable energy. A dialogue between different actors in the food system was highlighted to format a situational picture and enable a rapid response. Our study suggests that to a certain point, concentration and interdependence in the food system increase dialogue and cooperation. For critical resources, sufficient reserve stocks buffer disruptions over a short period in the event of unexpected production or market disruptions. Introducing and strengthening the identified resilience elements and means to the food system call for the preparation of a more holistic and coherent food system policy that acknowledges and emphasises resilience alongside efficiency.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10669-022-09889-5.

Organizing for supply chain resilience: a high reliability network perspective

Purpose

Both high reliability theory (HRT) and “new school” supply chain resilience (SCR) promote a multi-layered, adaptable, transformational, and holistic perspective on organizing and managing. The authors explore whether, and if so how, HRT offer fresh perspectives on the SCR challenges experienced during COVID-19 and on organizing for future resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

Addressing SCR at the interorganizational network level, and blending theory synthesis and case study research, the authors assess if and how HRN constructs and practices can guide analysis of SCR in dynamic, complex networks, and help shape development pathways towards organizing for resilience. Findings draw on thick description and iterative coding of data (58 interviews and 200+ documents) on the buyer network responsible for managing the supply of critical medical products in the Netherlands.

Findings

HRT highlights the interconnectedness of challenges encountered during COVID-19 and helps design future resilience through three lessons. Organizing for SCR requires (1) both anticipation and containment strategies, (2) stable working relationships characterized by trust, and (3) a clear basis of command underpinned by experience-based legitimacy.

Originality/value

Distinctive from SCR, which views crises as “black swans”, HRT organizes around everyday consideration of the risk of failure. Taking a buyer network perspective, the authors move beyond the buyer-supplier network focus in SCR. The authors contend that emphasis on measures such as supplier base management, stockpiling, and domestic production are essential but not sufficient. Rather, HRT implies that deep structural and social ties within the buyer network should also be emphasized.

Panarchy-based transformative supply chain resilience: the role of supply chain capital

Purpose

This paper aims to explain the role of supply chain capital (SCC) in developing transformative supply chain resilience (SCRes) to cope with environmental dynamism. Through a panarchy theory lens, this paper holistically examines how supply chains and their resilience are impacted by the multilevel structure in which they are embedded.

Design/methodology/approach

Contextualised explanation-building case studies are used to examine the transformative SCRes of 10 companies. Data were collected via interviews, documents, archival records and observations.

Findings

Studying transformative SCRes leads to generating insights into the application of SCC for managing environmental dynamisms at the organisational and supply chain levels. Furthermore, the linkages between different levels of the panarchy and their impact on the change in SCC to cope with the dynamisms are identified and explained.

Research limitations/implications

This paper contributes to the new and timely paradigm of transformative SCRes by studying this phenomenon in a holistic manner (rather than a traditional reductionistic view). Through a panarchy lens, the need to examine and analyse different hierarchy levels simultaneously to interpret SCRes responses to environmental dynamism is highlighted.

Practical implications

Valuable insights are provided to practitioners in developing an understanding of structural and relational SCC and their management in the development of transformative SCRes.

Originality/value

This paper is one of the first empirical studies using a multilevel social-ecological-based panarchy framework in the supply chain management context. Applying this novel approach is highly relevant and reveals several new research opportunities.

Is there a theory of supply chain resilience? A bibliometric analysis of the literature

Purpose

This study aims to identify the past, present and future lines of research in the supply chain resilience (SCRES) literature and to answer the question of whether resilience is “just another” supply chain (SC) concept or if it constitutes its own theory.

Design/methodology/approach

This study involves a bibliometric analysis of 1,596 research articles published in the Web of Science Core Collection™ database between 2004 and 2021, with a focus on: publications and citations per year, co-citations of articles and authors, co-occurrences of the keywords used and thematic development. Seven SCRES experts have also analysed and discussed the research results.

Findings

The results show how resilience has become one of the main thematic blocks of SC research in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a 62.04% increase in academic publications. Despite the abundant literature, there is still no overarching theory of SCRES. One possible hindrance to the creation of such a theory is the variety of existing definitions and models of SCRES. This research identifies this as a shortcoming that future studies should address. As the results show, the combination of SCRES with other fields, such as engineering and ecology, can help in constructing a global theory of SCRES.

Originality/value

Bibliometric analysis is used to confirm the SCRES literature gap in the development of an overarching theory, although resilience constitutes one of the main thematic blocks of the SC literature.

Resilient supply management systems in times of crisis

Purpose

This study investigated how organizations can maintain their supply chain (SC) resilience in situations where high-impact shocks cannot be absorbed and what capabilities are needed. The article is an empirical exploration of a socio-ecological view of resilience in the SC context.

Design/methodology/approach

The case under study in this article is that of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and MSF's reconfiguration of its supply management processes in response to the supply shocks during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In total, 503 internal documents and ERP extractions from six databases from late 2019 to September 2020, 43 semi-structured interviews and a 3-round policy Delphi process were used to investigate this phenomenon.

Findings

The authors' results show that throughout the pandemic, MSF adapted its procurement and supply processes to cope with supply shortages at both the international and local levels of the SC. This was possible due to the organization's capacity to use its exploitation and exploration capabilities of the organization at the same time.

Research limitations/implications

This research is based on the single in-depth case study of a medical aid organization. Further research should investigate this phenomenon in commercial companies with similar or different organizational structures.

Originality/value

This study constitutes a first attempt to empirically demonstrate that the four phases of the adaptive cycle put forth in the panarchy theory constitute a suitable representation of the reconfigurations that SCs follow in response to a high-impact shock. The study also adds to the growing body of knowledge on resilience by including ambidexterity as a mechanism to achieve resilience.

Service supply chain resilience: a social-ecological perspective on last-mile delivery operations

Purpose

Considering the last-mile delivery service supply chain as a social-ecological system rather than just a firm-based service system, this research exploit the COVID-19 pandemic disruption to investigate how the supply chain develops resilience from a viewpoint that integrates a social-ecological perspective with the traditional engineering one.

Design/methodology/approach

This research adopt a multi-case study approach using qualitative data collected via semi-structured interviews with executive-level managers from nine leading UK last-mile delivery companies. Data analysis is guided by a research framework which is developed by combining the social-ecological perspective with the structure–conduct–performance paradigm. This framework aids the investigation of the impacts of external challenges on companies' resilience strategies and practices, as well as performance, in response to disruptions.

Findings

The research identifies three distinct pathways to resilience development: stabilization, focussing on bouncing back to the original normal; adaptation, involving evolutionary changes to a new normal; transformation, involving revolutionary changes in pursuit of a new normal-plus. Three strategic orientations are identified as operating across these pathways: people orientation, digital orientation, and learning orientation.

Originality/value

In contrast to the manufacturing supply chain focus of most current research, this research concentrates on the service supply chain, investigating its resilience with a social-ecological perspective alongside the traditional engineering one.

A literature review on quantitative models for supply chain risk management: Can they be applied to pandemic disruptions?

Supply chain risk management is considered a topic of increasing interest worldwide and its focus has evolved over time. The recent coronavirus pandemic (known as COVID-19) has forced business to handle a new global crisis and rapidly adapt to unexpected challenges. In an attempt to help companies counteract the pandemic risk, as well as to fuel the scientific discussion about this topic, this paper proposes a systematic literature review on risk management and disruptions in the supply chain focusing on quantitative models and paying a particular attention to highlighting the potentials of the studies reviewed for being applied to counteract pandemic emergencies. An appropriate query was made on Scopus and returned, after a manual screening, a useful set of 99 papers that proposed models for supply chain risk management. The relevant aspects of pandemics risk management have been first identified and mapped; then, the studies reviewed have been analysed with the aim of evaluating their suitability of being applied to sanitary crises. In carrying out this review of the literature, the study moves from previous, more general, reviews about risk management and updates them, starting from the lines of research that have been covered in recent years and evaluating their consistency with future research directions emerging also as a consequence of the pandemic crisis. Gaps and limitations of the existing models are identified and future research directions for pandemics risk management are suggested.

Comparing regions globally: impacts of COVID-19 on supply chains – a Delphi study

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged supply chains (SCs) around the globe unprecedentedly. This study aims to gain insights on the impacts of the pandemic on SCs and their management under consideration of different regional contexts on a global scale.

Design/methodology/approach

A Delphi study collects the expertise of global SC academics on the SC vulnerabilities and the measures for responding to disruptions, improving resilience, and restoring operations. Data from three polls are systematically analyzed by content, frequency, and cluster analysis.

Findings

The study identifies and ranks ten major issues related to SC vulnerabilities and management strategies for specific SC processes and geographical regions. Detected differences among the considered geographical regions point towards particular challenges and call for specific measures to integrate regional contingencies into SC management. In a regional comparison, China and Iran as well as Africa clearly stand out, but also Europe/North America, India/Pakistan, and Brazil show geographical particularities.

Research limitations/implications

The responses are collected against the COVID-19 pandemic, while the findings show differences among the regions thereby arguing for taking regional contingencies into account in managing SCs.

Practical implications

SC resilience is a core aim, which was emphasized by the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings provide insights and challenges that managers would have to meet in the different regions covered.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to existing knowledge on SC risks and SC resilience in context to extreme situations. Given that events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, will become more frequent in the future due to climate change and geopolitical tensions, insights into how to manage SCs under extreme conditions and into regional differences are crucial.

Supply chain resilience in the UK during the coronavirus pandemic: A resource orchestration perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions to global operations and supply chains. While the huge impact of the pandemic has nurtured important literature over the last couple of years, little is being said about the role of resource orchestration in supporting resilience in highly disruptive contexts. Thus, this study aims to this knowledge gap by proposing an original model to explore supply chain resilience (SCRE) antecedents, considering supply chain alertness (SCAL) as a central point to support resilience. This study focuses on the resource orchestration theory (ROT) to design a conceptual model. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) served to validate the model, exploring data from the UK supply chain decision-makers. The study reveals a number of both expected and unexpected findings. These include the evidence that supply chain disruption orientation (SCDO) has a strong positive effect on the SCAL. In addition, SCAL plays a strong positive effect in resource reconfiguration (RREC), supply chain efficiency (SCEF) and SCRE. We further identified a partial mediation effect of RREC on the relationship between SCAL and SCRE. Surprisingly, it appeared that SCAL strongly influences SCEF, while SCEF itself does not create any significant effect on SCRE. For managers and practitioners, the importance of resource orchestration as a decisive approach to adequately respond to huge disruptions is clearly highlighted by our results. Finally, this paper helps to grasp better how important resource orchestration in operations and supply chains remains for appropriate responses to high disruptions such as the COVID-19 impacts.

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.

Sustainable supply chain management towards disruption and organizational ambidexterity: A data driven analysis

Balancing sustainability and disruption of supply chains requires organizational ambidexterity. Sustainable supply chains prioritize efficiency and economies of scale and may not have sufficient redundancy to withstand disruptive events. There is a developing body of literature that attempts to reconcile these two aspects. This study gives a data-driven literature review of sustainable supply chain management trends toward ambidexterity and disruption. The critical review reveals temporal trends and geographic distribution of literature. A hybrid of data-driven analysis approach based on content and bibliometric analyses, fuzzy Delphi method, entropy weight method, and fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory is used on 273 keywords and 22 indicators obtained based on the experts' evaluation. The most important indicators are identified as supply chain agility, supply chain coordination, supply chain finance, supply chain flexibility, supply chain resilience, and sustainability. The regions show different tendencies compared with others. Asia and Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa are the regions needs improvement, while Europe and North America show distinct apprehensions on supply chain network design. The main contribution of this review is the identification of the knowledge frontier, which then leads to a discussion of prospects for future studies and practical industry implementation.

Strategies for Managing the Impacts of Disruptions During COVID-19: an Example of Toilet Paper

Due to the recent pandemic of coronavirus, known as the COVID-19 outbreak, the supply chains have been impacted most significantly. Manufacturers of certain items have experienced a substantial increase in demand, and on the other hand, raw materials supply, to produce those items, has reduced because of supply failure. To overcome these challenges, this paper proposes some strategies to improve service level during an extraordinary pandemic outbreak, such as COVID-19, for the most wanted products such as toilet paper. This study considers meeting the increased demand of the customers for an essential product of daily life like toilet paper during a pandemic is beyond the traditional economic objective, i.e., increase profit, of the manufacturers. Instead, this should be more about the social responsibility of all the manufactures to ensure that they can serve more customers. Motivated by this and taking toilet paper as an example of the product, we first analyzed the current scenario of the manufacturing and the demand for the product and then proposed some strategies to deal with this unprecedented risk and analyzed the results. We have compared the results, using hypothetical data, between the current scenario and proposed strategies. The result shows that sharing information and resources from all manufacturers to produce under a single brand, emergency sourcing, producing basic quality items, and packing in the smallest sizes have a significant positive impact on the service level. This paper first investigates the strategies for a high-demand and essential item during a pandemic situation and proposes strategies to deal with this unique, extraordinary disruption.

Food systems for resilient futures

In this time of the pandemic, nothing is as it used to be. This change creates space for new narratives towards resilience. The resilience perspective implies preparing for shocks as well as various futures that might evolve. Thus, more sustainable food systems cannot only be built to be pandemic proof. This preparation can be facilitated by co-designing contrasting future narratives, identifying means for developing capacity to adapt to those futures and developing tools to enhance that capacity, such as demonstrated here. The capacity of food systems to adapt and transform is enhanced by dialogue, transparency and collective learning in food value chains and networks, sovereignty over resources, and built-in diversity in response to change. In market-led global food chains, supplier-buyer diversity is important, while in public-led regions with some market protection, farm and crop diversity might matter more in response to variability in weather, price and policies. During, for example, an international conflict, or the time of a pandemic, diverse food sourcing from local producer-consumer cooperatives to community-supported and urban agriculture could secure food for citizens. Assessments of critical diversity in response to shocks and volatility can help actors to tailor effective diversity to manage resilience while avoiding the long-feared trade-off between diversity and resource-use efficiency. The interdependence of humanity deserves attention, as food systems are only as resilient as their weakest actor. A truly resilient global food system implies not only preparedness for coming shocks and changes but also a foundation that makes shocks less probable and critical.

Corona virus, tariffs, trade wars and supply chain evolutionary design

Purpose

Using the constructal law of physics this study aims to provide guidance to future scholarship on global supply chain management. Further, through two case studies the authors are developing, the authors report interview findings with two senior VPs from two multi-national corporations being disrupted by COVID-19. This study suggests how this and recent events will impact on the design of future global supply chains.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors apply the constructal law to explain the recent disruptions to the global supply chain orthodoxy. Two interviews are presented from case studies the authors are developing in the USA and UK – one a multi-national automobile parts supplier and the other is a earth-moving equipment manufacture. Specifically, this is an exploratory pathway work trying to make sense of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on supply chain scholarship.

Findings

Adopting the approach of Bejan, the authors believe that what is happening today with COVID-19 and other trade disruptions such as Brexit and the USA imposing tariffs is creating new obstacles that will redirect the future flow of supply chains.

Research limitations/implications

It is clear that the COVID-19 response introduced a bullwhip effect in the manufacturing sector on a scale never-before seen. For scholars, the authors would suggest there are four pathway topics going forward. These topics include: the future state of global sourcing, the unique nature of a combined “demand” and “supply shortage” bullwhip effect, the resurrection of lean and local production systems and the development of risk-recovery contingency strategies to deal with pandemics.

Practical implications

Supply chain managers tend to be iterative and focused on making small and subtle changes to their current system and way of thinking, very often seeking to optimize cost or negotiate better contracts with suppliers. In the current environment, however, such activities have proved to be of little consequence compared to the massive forces of economic disruption of the past three years. Organizations that have more tightly compressed supply chains are enjoying a significant benefit during the COVID-19 crisis and are no longer being held hostage to governments of another country.

Social implications

An implicit assumption in the press is that COVID-19 caught everyone by surprise, and that executives foolishly ignored the risks of outsourcing to China and are now paying the price. However, noted scholars and epidemiologists have been warning of the threats of pandemics since the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus. The pundits would further posit that in their pursuit of low-cost production, global corporations made naive assumptions that nothing could disrupt them. Both the firms the authors have interviewed had to close plants to protect their workforce. It was indicated in the cases the authors are developing that it is going to take manufacturers on average one month to recover from 4–6 days of disruption. These companies employ many thousands of people, and direct and ancillary workers are now temporarily laid off and face an uncertain future as/when they will recover back to normal production.

Originality/value

Using the constructal law of physics, the authors seek to provide guidance to future scholarship on global supply chain management. Further, through two case studies, the authors provide the first insight from two senior VPs from two leading multi-national corporations in their respective sectors being disrupted by COVID-19. This study is the first indication to how this and recent disruptive events will impact on the design of future global supply chains. Unlike the generic work, which has recently appeared in HBR and Forbes, it is grounded in real operational insight.