Preparing supply chain for the next disruption beyond COVID-19: managerial antecedents of supply chain resilience

Abstract

PurposeCOVID-19 once again showed the importance of building resilience in supply chains. Extant research on supply chain resilience management has successfully identified a set of organizational antecedents that contribute to supply chain resilience. However, little is known about the mechanisms by which these antecedents are developed within a firm. Drawing on the dynamic managerial capabilities theory, the current study aims to investigate the critical role that supply chain managers play in developing the organizational antecedents. Specifically, this study shows that supply chain managers' social capital, human capital and cognition are instrumental to the development of three organizational supply chain resilience antecedents: visibility, responsiveness and flexibility, which subsequently enhance the firm's supply chain resilience.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ survey data collected from 598 manufacturing firms in Australia, and Hayes and Preacher's (2014) parallel multiple mediator model to empirically test the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings of the study establish that supply chain managers' social capital, human capital and cognition indeed have implications for developing supply chain resilience. Furthermore, the mediators through which managers' social capital, human capital and cognition improve supply chain resilience are identified in the current study.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the extant literature on supply chain resilience, investigating the role that supply chain managers play in developing the resilience of their firm.