Value of supply chain resilience: roles of culture, flexibility, and integration

Necessary condition analysis of organisational capabilities for a resilient service operation in the hotel industry in Ghana

Resilience in service operation is essential for minimising service failures. Based on a necessity logic, this study sought to examine whether innovation, transparency, flexibility, collaboration and agility are necessary antecedents of resilience in service operations of hotels, and to determine the minimum level of each capability required for optimal level of resilience. A survey of managers of Star-rated hotels in the Greater Accra region of Ghana was conducted. The conditions (agility, transparency, innovation, collaboration and flexibility) and outcome (resilience) variables were operationalised and modelled as necessary determinants of service resilience. Structured questionnaires were administered, from which 167 validated responses was analysed with necessary condition analysis (NCA) package in R. NCA explores necessity relationships both 'in kind' and 'in degree' to identify underlying capabilities and the corresponding levels that must be developed and sustained. The study found innovation, transparency, collaboration, flexibility, and agility to be necessary determinants of service resilience. However, from lower to medium levels of resilience (30%-80%), transparency, collaboration, flexibility, and agility are identified as bottlenecks. Innovation becomes important when higher resilience goals are sought. From a managerial standpoint, this study provides insight into critical antecedents of resilience within service operations. In addition, the study sheds light on the degree of resource allocation appropriate for different levels of firm resilience.

Predicting the effects of supply chain resilience and robustness on COVID-19 impacts and performance: Empirical investigation through resources orchestration perspective

This study investigates the effects of supply chain (SCRE) and robustness (SCRO) on COVID-19 super disruption impacts and firm's financial performance by mobilizing the resources orchestration theory (ROT) as the main theoretical framework. We adopt structural equation modeling analysis of data collected from 289 French companies. The findings reveal the significantly positive influence of resources orchestration on SCRE and SCRO and the role of the latter in mitigating the pandemic disruption impacts. Notwithstanding, depending on whether the measures are objective or subjective, the effects of SCRE and SCRO on financial performance vary. Overall, this paper presents empirical evidence of the influence of both of SCRE and SCRO on pandemic disruption impacts and financial performance. Furthermore, this research provides insights to guide practitioners and decision makers regarding resources orchestration and the deployment of SCRE and SCRO.

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.

Global supply chain resilience with the flexible partnership

Purpose

This paper aims to examine how multinational corporations respond to environmental turbulence by adopting a flexible supply chain (SC).

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts a case study in the medical industry to identify effective strategic approaches by taking advantage of new business opportunities and navigating complex business partnerships. This study focuses on medical diagnostic equipment, including computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and X-ray, that involves the suppliers, channel partners and medical users.

Findings

(1) The market turbulence brought the SC leaders to adopt multiple partnership approaches, i.e. funnel-based and area-based partnerships. (2) Adopting a funnel-based partnership allows the SC to seize new market opportunities. Still, it brought a risk element of SC failure from the flawed selection process and professional misconduct. (3) SC leaders adopted flexible partnerships to help address the risk of professional misconduct and select partners for long-term collaboration.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to emergent literature on social exchange theory by exposing the global SC when the SC leaders set up agility approaches. This paper also extends the discussion on the industrial marketing and purchasing theory, which seeks to promote an active buyer–seller relationship.

How digitalization in banking improve service supply chain resilience of e-commerce sector? a technological adoption model approach

Supply chain resilience (SCR) is crucial for organizational sustainability and growth. This paper explores the factors of digitalization in the banking sector for achieving resilience in the e-commerce service supply chain. Most previous researchers have explored supply chain resilience in e-commerce using structural equation modeling. This study identifies and evaluates the crucial factors of digital banking that improve resilience in the e-commerce service supply chain using the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique. A conceptual framework is created based on the literature review and technology adoption theory. The framework comprises the critical digital technology adoption factors for the resilient service supply chain in Pakistan’s e-commerce sector. The results show that the most critical driving factors are “performance expectancy (F15),” “e-cost effectiveness (F5),” and “Trust (F8)” The research findings have several implications for decision-makers, and practitioners, providing insights into how digitalization in the banking sector can help in designing resilient supply chains in the e-commerce sector.

Blockchain technology in supply chain management: an organizational theoretic overview and research agenda

Blockchain technology is touted as a game-changer. Many experts consider blockchain technology as one of the disruptive innovations. Following significant success in the banking and finance sector, blockchain technology has found significant success in all fields, including health, manufacturing, transportation, disaster relief operations, and many others. Recently, the academician has contributed significantly towards understanding blockchain technology and its application in the management field. To understand how the literature on blockchain technology in the supply chain has progressed, we undertook an extensive review of the literature published in peer-reviewed journals using databases such as SCOPUS. We have further classified our literature into four stages (pre-adoption, adoption, implementation, and application). Finally, we synthesized the findings of the study and proposed a research framework to explain how an organization can build supply chain resilience and enhance supply chain performance with the help of blockchain technology. Finally, we have noted the limitations of the study and future research directions.

Impacts of IT capability and supply chain collaboration on supply chain resilience: empirical evidence from China in COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose

Building supply chain resilience is increasingly recognized as an effective strategy to deal with supply chain challenges, risks and disruptions. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how to build supply chain resilience and whether supply chain resilience could achieve a competitive advantage.

Design/methodology/approach

By analyzing the data collected from 216 firms in China, the current study empirically examines how information technology (IT) capability and supply chain collaboration affect different forms of supply chain resilience (external resilience and internal resilience) and examines the performance implications of these two forms of supply chain resilience.

Findings

Results show that IT capability is positively related to external resilience, whereas supply chain collaboration is positively related to internal resilience. The combination of IT capability and supply chain collaboration is positively related to external resilience. In addition, internal resilience is positively related to firm performance.

Research limitations/implications

This study used only cross-sectional data from China for hypothesis testing. Future studies could utilise longitudinal data and research other countries/regions.

Practical implications

The findings systematically assess how IT capability and supply chain collaboration contribute to supply chain resilience and firm performance. The results provide a benchmark of supply chain resilience improvement that can be expected from IT capability and supply chain collaboration.

Originality/value

The study findings advance the understanding of supply chain resilience and provide practical implications for supply chain managers.

Forming post-COVID supply chains: does supply chain managers' social network affect resilience?

Purpose

Rethinking how to build resilience in supply chains is once again highlighted by COVID-19. Research on supply chain resilience has established flexibility as a firm-level antecedent that contributes to supply chain resilience. However, the authors know little about how supply chain flexibility is developed within a firm. Drawing on social capital theory, the authors claim that the way supply chain managers are embedded in their social networks plays a critical role in developing this antecedent. Specifically, the authors hypothesize that supply chain managers' structural and relational embeddedness in their reference network, comprised of individuals from whom they seek advice, is instrumental to developing supply chain flexibility, which subsequently enhances the firm's supply chain resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data collected from 485 manufacturing firms in Australia and Hayes and Preacher's (2014) parallel multiple mediator model were employed to empirically test the hypotheses.

Findings

The findings of the study establish that supply chain managers' structural and relational embeddedness in their reference network indeed have implications for developing supply chain resilience. Furthermore, the mediator through which managers' social embeddedness influences supply chain resilience is identified in the current study.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the extant literature on supply chain resilience, investigating the role that supply chain managers' social capital play in developing the resilience of their firm.

Investigating the relationship between digital technologies, supply chain integration and firm resilience in the context of COVID-19

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly augmented the complexity of information, adding to the challenges that firms face in effectively processing and grasping accurate information. As a result, the production uncertainty of firms has been seriously intensified during the pandemic, disrupting the normal operation of firms and their supply chains. Digital technologies serve as salient tools that help firms to process and analyse information, consequently enhancing firm resilience in the face of supply chain disruptions. This study aims to examine how digital technologies affect firm resilience in the context of COVID-19 through the lens of information processing theory and a large-scale survey conducted among Chinese manufacturers. Specifically, our study evaluates the mediating effect of supply chain integration (internal integration, customer integration and supplier integration) and the moderating effect of information complexity. The results show that supply chain integration plays a mediating role in the effect of digital technologies on firm resilience, and the mediation effect is particularly significant for customer integration. Furthermore, digital technologies have a stronger impact on firm resilience when information complexity is high. The findings advance our understanding and recognition of the resilience implications of digital technologies and provide important managerial implications for improving firm resilience in the context of COVID-19.

Multi-dimensional supply chain flexibility and supply chain resilience: the role of supply chain risks exposure

Natural disasters and unexpected disruptive events have forced practitioners and researchers to build resilience capability into their systems to survive and grow in tempestuous and turbulent times. This study empirically examined the effect of multi-dimensional supply chain flexibility (MDSCF) in improving supply chain resilience (SCRES) under a high supply chain (SC) risk environment. The study incorporated a survey technique and utilized valid responses from 191 large-scale manufacturing (LSM) firms of Pakistan. PLS-SEM is employed to analyze the hypothesized relationships. The findings indicated that MDSCF significantly contributes to improving SCRES. Moreover, the study shows strong significant moderating effects of the customer-oriented and external risks and the weak moderating effect of supplier-oriented risks towards augmenting SCRES. The study contributes to the SC (SC) risk management literature by providing empirical support for the need for multi-dimensional SC flexibility measures in bolstering SCRES under the high SC risk environment.

An ISM-MICMAC approach for analyzing dependencies among barriers of supply chain digitalization

Purpose

Supply chain digitalization (SCD) facilitates a competitive advantage and is equally challenging. A literature analysis reveals that research related to SCD is available, but analysis of key barriers and their interrelations for effective SCD is limited. This paper aims to identify and find out interrelationships among the key barriers affecting SCD in the electronic supply chain (SC).

Design/methodology/approach

Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) is used to identify the contextual relationship among the SCD barriers. The model is validated using MICMAC analysis.

Findings

The findings of this study have implications at both theoretical and practical levels. The proposed ISM model can help organizations analyze and interpret interrelationships among barriers to SCD. It can lead to better insights and understanding for minimizing the dominant barriers to effective SCD.

Originality/value

This study tries to bridge the gap in identifying and finding the interrelationships among the key barriers to effective SCD in an electronic SC. The result assists practicing managers and academicians in effective decision-making on the SCD process.

Addressing the Challenges to Sustainable Initiatives in Value Chain Flexibility: Implications for Sustainable Development Goals

The value chain refers to the source of competition to facilitate organizations to maximize and sustain value for their consumers. Value chain flexibility is necessary to build sustainable initiatives in addressing ambiguity. In the literature, there is a lack of framework to highlight the challenges to sustainable initiatives in value chain flexibility. This study fills this research gap by suggesting a framework for challenges to sustainable initiatives in value chain flexibility. In this study, thirteen potential challenges to sustainable initiatives in value chain flexibility are identified and an integrated model is developed. It adopts the modified Total Interpretive Structure Model and the Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification methodology. The mixed approach is used as the modified Total Interpretive Structure Model organizes the binary interactions among the challenges, while Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification analysis organizes specific precise assessments of the driving power and dependence of the challenges. The results of the study reflect that (i) lack of supplier commitment to sustainable products and (ii) lack of knowledge toward sustainability in value chains are the challenges that achieved the highest driving power. The challenge ‘inadequate communication among the suppliers in the value chain’ is at the highest level in the analysis. The proposed framework could help government and non-government bodies to formulate policies to efficiently address challenges to sustainable initiatives in value chain flexibility.

The role of big data analytics capabilities in bolstering supply chain resilience and firm performance: a dynamic capability view

Purpose

Big data analytics capability (BDAC) can affect firm performance in several ways. The purpose of this paper is to understand how BDA capabilities affect firm performance through supply chain resilience in the presence of the risk management culture.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopted a cross-sectional approach to collect survey-based responses to examine the hypotheses. 167 responses were collected and analyzed using partial least squares in SmartPLS3. The respondents were generally senior IT executives with education and experience in data and business analytics.

Findings

The results show that BDA capabilities increase supply chain resilience as a mediator by enhancing innovative capabilities and information quality, ultimately leading to improved firm performance. In addition, the relationship between supply chain resilience and firm performance is influenced by risk management culture as a moderator.

Originality/value

The present study contributes to the relevant literature by demonstrating the mediating role of supply chain resilience between the BDA capabilities relationship and firm performance. In this context, some theoretical and managerial implications are proposed and discussed.

AI technologies and their impact on supply chain resilience during COVID-19

Purpose

COVID-19 has pushed many supply chains to re-think and strengthen their resilience and how it can help organisations survive in difficult times. Considering the availability of data and the huge number of supply chains that had their weak links exposed during COVID-19, the objective of the study is to employ artificial intelligence to develop supply chain resilience to withstand extreme disruptions such as COVID-19.

Design/methodology/approach

We adopted a qualitative approach for interviewing respondents using a semi-structured interview schedule through the lens of organisational information processing theory. A total of 31 respondents from the supply chain and information systems field shared their views on employing artificial intelligence (AI) for supply chain resilience during COVID-19. We used a process of open, axial and selective coding to extract interrelated themes and proposals that resulted in the establishment of our framework.

Findings

An AI-facilitated supply chain helps systematically develop resilience in its structure and network. Resilient supply chains in dynamic settings and during extreme disruption scenarios are capable of recognising (sensing risks, degree of localisation, failure modes and data trends), analysing (what-if scenarios, realistic customer demand, stress test simulation and constraints), reconfiguring (automation, re-alignment of a network, tracking effort, physical security threats and control) and activating (establishing operating rules, contingency management, managing demand volatility and mitigating supply chain shock) operations quickly.

Research limitations/implications

As the present research was conducted through semi-structured qualitative interviews to understand the role of AI in supply chain resilience during COVID-19, the respondents may have an inclination towards a specific role of AI due to their limited exposure.

Practical implications

Supply chain managers can utilise data to embed the required degree of resilience in their supply chains by considering the proposed framework elements and phases.

Originality/value

The present research contributes a framework that presents a four-phased, structured and systematic platform considering the required information processing capabilities to recognise, analyse, reconfigure and activate phases to ensure supply chain resilience.

Supply Chain Integration Enables Resilience, Flexibility, and Innovation to Improve Business Performance in COVID-19 Era

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a sudden change from normal conditions to disruption conditions, and industrial sectors have experienced eroded growth. In particular, the manufacturing industry experienced a slowdown due to the sudden disruption in supply and demand. This situation stimulates the manufacturing industry to recover from this current challenging disruption. This study investigates the impact of supply chain integration on business performance through supply chain resilience, supply chain flexibility, and innovation system in Indonesia’s manufacturing companies. Data collection has obtained as many as 470 questionnaires considered valid for further analysis. Data analysis used the partial least square (PLS) technique using smartPLS software version 3.0. The results show that supply chain integration affects innovation system, supply chain flexibility, and supply chain resilience because of its ability to share complete product information and share production planning. Innovation systems and supply chain flexibility enhance supply chain resilience through the ability to deal with sudden changes in customer demand and production problems. Supply chain integration improves business performance through innovation, supply chain flexibility, and supply chain resilience in the COVID-19 era. This research could be the best practice for managers in restoring manufacturing performance quickly. This study also contributes to the current research in supply chain management.

Blockchain connectivity inhibitors: weaknesses affecting supply chain interaction and resilience

Purpose

The paper aims to further understanding of connectivity from the perspective of blockchain technology (BT) in the supply chain (SC). It presents the weaknesses (inhibitors) of connectivity during technology implementation, focusing on supply chain interaction and resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

Restricting the focus to digital connectivity, interaction and supply chain resilience, this paper uses a systematic literature review (SLR) to examine how the literature has addressed, related or flagged connectivity weaknesses affecting supply chain interaction and resilience.

Findings

This study highlights the influence of connectivity for blockchain-technology projects. Technical and organisational influencers that affect the adoption of technology in the SC are presented. These influencers support the factors proposed in this study regarding the weaknesses that negatively affect the interaction between the agents involved and the SC's resilience. The research suggests that the weaknesses are related to technical needs and the relationships between companies arising from functionalities.

Research limitations/implications

This paper is restricted to a review of the theory and the researched material. Although the author was careful to choose the best search terms related to the research objective, some potentially relevant articles may have been excluded.

Practical implications

The study summarises research on blockchain connectivity influencers in the SC, helping managers to anticipate and mitigate some of doubts and concerns in projects of this nature.

Originality/value

This is one of the first articles in the area of operations and SCs that addresses the topic of connectivity, focusing on its restrictive factors (connectivity inhibitors), in the context of blockchain implementation in the SC.

Greenwashing of Local Government: The Human-Caused Risks in the Process of Environmental Information Disclosure in China

The increasing occurrences of greenwashing pose great risks to environmental protection. The current studies mainly focused on corporate greenwashing, and few paid attention to the greenwashing of the local government (GLG), thus lacking methods to identify the risks of forming the GLG and finding practicable countermeasures. This paper tries to fill the research gap in the study of the GLG by analyzing human factors. Given that the GLG is in close relationship with environmental governance pressures related to environmental information disclosure (EID), this paper attempts to analyze the human-caused risks of forming the GLG in the process of EID. This work focused on the process analysis, examined the human causes that form the GLG in the stages of collecting, medium, and disseminating of environmental information (EI), and offered countermeasures embedded with resilience accordingly.

Knowledge System Analysis on Emergency Management of Public Health Emergencies

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infectious pneumonia pandemic highlights the importance of emergency management of public health emergencies (EMPHE). This paper addresses the challenge of building a knowledge system for EMPHE research that may contribute to understand the spatial and temporal characteristics of knowledge distribution, research status, cutting-edge research and development trends, and helps to identify promising research topics and guide research and practice of EMPHE. Based on the Web of Science, this paper retrieves 1467 articles about EMPHE published from 2010 to date. Then, based on high-frequency keywords, we use CiteSpace to analyze their knowledge co-occurrence network, clustering network and knowledge evolution. Furthermore, we summarize the features and gaps in EMPHE research, providing references for future research directions. Based on the above analysis, this work constructs a knowledge system about EMPHE research, providing a comprehensive visual summary of the existing research in the field of EMPHE, with the aim to guide future research and practice.