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

Abstract

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.

Towards strengthening resilience of organizations by risk management tools: A scientometric perspective on COVID‐19 experience in a healthcare and industrial setting

“…Flexibility is one of the most recurrent factors analyzed by researchers during pandemics, and it has been defined as the capability to adapt to new, different, or changing requirements, [98] to respond and recover from abnormal situations, [99] or the ability of a firm to change by adjusting the supply chain configuration. [100] This factor is often associated with the design stage of processes in order to allow them to absorb shock without failure, to adjust to changing conditions with the least amount of F I G U R E 5 Network visualization of the co-occurrence of keywords within 302 papers analyzed by VOSviewer (minimum number of occurrences was set to 10, considering full counting). Size of circles is proportional to keywords occurrence.…”

“…[104] Key features associated to supply chain agility were speed and supply chain visibility, [102,103,105] and adaptive capacity. [100] Because the critical role of collaboration between the companies and with other entities participating in the value creation process is recognized, under COVID-19, emergency collaboration and communication have been widely promoted. [100,106,107] Collaboration has been defined as the ability of at least two independent firms to work successfully together, arranging and executing supply chain activities towards shared objectives, [93] the capability involving cooperation, joint planning, information and resource sharing, [102] visibility, transparency, and the creation of partnerships to minimize disruption [100] and to achieve mutual benefit.…”

“…[100] Because the critical role of collaboration between the companies and with other entities participating in the value creation process is recognized, under COVID-19, emergency collaboration and communication have been widely promoted. [100,106,107] Collaboration has been defined as the ability of at least two independent firms to work successfully together, arranging and executing supply chain activities towards shared objectives, [93] the capability involving cooperation, joint planning, information and resource sharing, [102] visibility, transparency, and the creation of partnerships to minimize disruption [100] and to achieve mutual benefit. The keyword 'information' implies the exchange of the right information between associates of a supply chain community, [93] as well as the exchange of data relevant for enabling the monitoring of inventory management processes and making timely interventions.…”

Identifying resilience strategies for disruption management in the healthcare supply chain during COVID-19 by digital innovations: A systematic literature review

“…Currently, contributions by different studies have concentrated mostly on investigating resilience strategies and have tried to classify their nature [ [38] , [39] , [40] ], but detailed information regarding particular activities for dealing with emergencies, like Covid-19, is lacking. This research aims to bridge the knowledge gap in the healthcare SCM literature concerning the use of innovative technologies for risk management, which leads to the following research questions: What are the main technologies for supply chain management in healthcare?…”

“…The knowledge gap addressed in this research is essential, as SCM studies and professionals have acknowledged the expanding application and influence of innovative tools to make business value and represent this value by obtaining a competitive advantage in the healthcare industry [ 41 ]. The importance of adopting these emerging technologies such as block chain [ 42 , 43 ], artificial intelligence [ 44 ], cloud computing [ 45 ], big data [ 46 ], and robotics [ 47 ], is emphasized in the SCM literature [ 40 ]. This research attempts to propose some resilience policies with novel technologies for SCM in healthcare by considering lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.…”