Purpose

Are major and frequent disruptions transforming global supply chains? This study aims to investigate how multinational companies (MNCs) are responding to the phenomenon of accumulated major disruptions in recent years and plausible new paradigm of unstable conditions and environmental uncertainty from a supply chain resilience (SCRES) perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

Following an inductive interpretivist approach based on interpretive phenomenology, this study gathers insights from ten MNCs supply chain managers and international consultants who participated as key informants via semi-structured interviews, sharing their experience of the phenomenon. Additionally, secondary sources such as press releases, media articles and industry reports were used for data collection.

Findings

Findings include five categories of recovery actions, i.e. levelling, rationing, buffering, bridging and boundary redefining, key strategic changes in competitive priorities, internal organisation and coordination structures, and a hierarchy between SCRES characteristics, integrated in an empirically derived conceptual framework connecting these constructs. This contributes to middle-range theories within SCRES body of knowledge. The authors also identify a set of areas for future SCRES research.

Practical implications

Findings can support MNCs’ supply chain professionals in designing and managing resilient global supply chains, based on learnings from the recent highly disruptive environment, particularly, regarding recovery actions and resilience-building strategic changes contributing to agility and robustness in global supply chains.

Originality/value

Non-positivist interpretive and inductive works are scarce in SCRES research. By adopting this novel approach for this field, the authors broadened the categorisation of responses used in previous works and identified prominent strategic changes and SCRES characteristics and relations among constructs, thus bringing conceptual clarity to SCRES research within the context of the study.

中文翻译：

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全球供应链的弹性：分析重大中断引发的响应、恢复行动和战略变化

目的

重大且频繁的中断是否正在改变全球供应链？本研究旨在从供应链弹性 (SCRES) 的角度调查跨国公司 (MNC) 如何应对近年来累积的重大中断现象以及不稳定条件和环境不确定性的似是而非的新范式。

设计/方法/途径

遵循基于解释现象学的归纳解释主义方法，本研究收集了十家跨国公司供应链经理和国际顾问的见解，他们作为关键信息提供者通过半结构化访谈参与，分享了他们对这一现象的体验。此外，新闻稿、媒体文章和行业报告等二手资料也被用于数据收集。

发现

调查结果包括五类恢复行动，即平衡、配给、缓冲、桥接和边界重新定义，竞争优先事项的关键战略变化，内部组织和协调结构，以及 SCRES 特征之间的层次结构，整合在连接这些结构的经验派生的概念框架中. 这有助于 SCRES 知识体系中的中层理论。作者还确定了未来 SCRES 研究的一系列领域。

实际影响

调查结果可以支持跨国公司的供应链专业人员根据最近高度破坏性环境的经验教训设计和管理有弹性的全球供应链，特别是关于有助于全球供应链敏捷性和稳健性的恢复行动和建立弹性的战略变化。

原创性/价值

SCRES 研究中很少有非实证主义的解释和归纳著作。通过在该领域采用这种新颖的方法，作者拓宽了之前作品中使用的反应的分类，并确定了显着的战略变化和 SCRES 特征以及结构之间的关系，从而使研究背景下的 SCRES 研究概念清晰。