Bespoke supply-chain resilience: The gap between theory and practice

  • Morris Cohen
  • , Shiliang Cui
  • , Sebastian Doetsch
  • , Ricardo Ernst
  • , Arnd Huchzermeier
  • , Panos Kouvelis
  • , Hau Lee
  • , Hirofumi Matsuo
  • , Andy A. Tsay

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    73 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Recent research has documented that companies are pursuing a variety of strategies to enhance supply-chain resilience. This paper examines how managers actually think about resilience strategies, and then analyzes the relationship between operations, supply-chain characteristics, and the implemented strategies. We define a “Triple-P” framework that matches resilience strategies to supply-chain archetypes by examining Product, Partnership, and Process complexity based on interviews of senior supply-chain executives. These interviews revealed two major influencers of resilience strategy, that is, Homogeneity of internal supply-chain processes and Integration with other actors in their end-to-end supply chains. We found that the supply chains have different resilience requirements, have different ways to achieve resilience (which we conceptualize as “bespoke supply-chain resilience”), and face different obstacles to resilience. This study aims at initiating a dialogue between supply-chain scholars and practitioners to support more research for developing an effective supply-chain resilience strategy.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)515-531
    Number of pages17
    JournalJournal of Operations Management
    Volume68
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Jul 2022

    Keywords

    • supply-chain archetypes
    • supply-chain integration
    • supply-chain resilience
    • supply-chain segmentation

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