This study investigates strategies for improving the operational resilience, i.e. an organisation’s capacity to minimise, manage, and recover from disruptions quickly, ensuring continuity in its primary business processes. The focus has been a national infrastructure company, specifically in energy production, and the large supply chain disruptions it has experienced in the wake of COVID-19 and the Ukraine war. The study primarily compares the investigated strategies with literature and theoretical frameworks from a procurement research perspective. The study is an embedded multiple case study investigating three cases with delayed renewal projects. The identified disruptions and their effect on the projects’ performance have been studied, as well as more direct reasons for delays in the cases, such as organisational issues and procurement processes. A framework for categorising disruptions has been developed and three different portfolio purchasing models were investigated in order to be applied to the findings of the study. Key findings reveal that disruptions have affected the case company’s operations significantly, with more projects being delayed and fewer available suppliers in the wake of these disruptive events. Inefficient decision making processes have also been identified as sources of delays, as well as lack of communication within the organisation. The study concludes in practical recommendations for the case company, which can be applicable for similar companies as well. A significant recommendation was that the case company should form strategic partnerships with suppliers of generators, transformers and control systems in order to ensure ample future availability of key components. Other recommendations include working towards more efficient decision making processes when deviating from the group instructions surrounding competitive tendering as well as improving the communication of procurement strategies within the organisation / Denna studie undersöker strategier för att förbättra den operativa motståndskraften, d.v.s. en organisations förmåga att minimera, hantera och återhämta sig snabbt från störningar, för att säkerställa kontinuitet i sina primära affärsprocesser. Fokus har varit på ett nationellt infrastrukturföretag, specifikt inom energiproduktion, och de stora störningar i leveranskedjorna som de har upplevt i kölvattnet av COVID-19 och kriget i Ukraina. De undersökta strategierna kommer att jämföras med litteratur och teoretiska ramverk främst från ett inköpsperspektiv. Studien är en multipel fallstudie inom en organisation som undersöker tre fall med försenade förnyelseprojekt. De identifierade störningarna och deras effekt på projektens prestanda har studerats, liksom mer direkta orsaker till förseningarna i projekten, såsom organisatoriska problem och inköpsprocesser. Ett ramverk för kategorisering av störningar har utvecklats och tre olika portföljinköpsmodeller undersöktes för att kunna tillämpas på studiens resultat. Studien visar att störningarna har påverkat företagets verksamhet avsevärt, med fler försenade projekt och färre tillgängliga leverantörer som följd av av dessa störande händelser. Ineffektiva beslutsprocesser har också identifierats som källor till förseningar, liksom brist på kommunikation inom organisationen. Studien avslutas med praktiska rekommendationer till företaget, som även kan vara tillämpliga för liknande företag. En betydande rekommendation var att företaget bör bilda strategiska partnerskap med leverantörer av generatorer, transformatorer och kontrollanläggningar för att säkerställa framtida tillgång till kritiska komponenter. Andra rekommendationer inkluderar att arbeta mot mer effektiva beslutsprocesser vid avvikelser från koncerninstruktioner om konkurrensutsättning samt förbättra kommunikationen av inköpsstrategier inom organisationen.

Supply chains have become increasingly unstable due to unanticipated disruptive events, which undermines a firm's capacity to achieve a competitive market advantage and increase profitability. The disruption of a supply chain is essential to supply chain managers, as the interruption can be expensive, and the goods and services lost can negatively affect the entire supply chain. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies that manufacturing firm managers use to mitigate supply chain disruptions to remain profitable. The population consisted of 4 supply chain managers from 2 manufacturing firms located in the southern region of eastern Virginia. The conceptual framework for this study was the contingency theory of fit. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, company documents, and publicly available information. Based on the thematic data analysis, 3 emergent themes developed as collaboration and information sharing, information technology and supply chain risk, and use of multiple suppliers. The implications for positive social change include potential increased employment opportunities and salaries, investments in community projects, and enhanced consumer spending in the local community, thereby raising the standard of living and social well-being of local community residents.

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Background: Reshoring is a growing phenomenon that refers to a company’s decision to move production back from a previously offshored location. There are many drivers and barriers to such decisions that display an increased complexity for managers. It gets even more challenging in a world with high levels of uncertainty shown in the past decade.    Purpose:  This study aims to investigate the drivers and barriers of reshoring and how managers perceive the risk of disruptive events as a driver of reshoring.    Method: This study uses a qualitative method and deductive approach, where empirical evidence was collected through semi-structured interviews with eight managers at clothing companies.   Conclusion: The findings of this study confirm several already established drivers and barriers to reshoring in the particular context of the clothing industry. Furthermore, the study shows that managers perceive an increased willingness to reshore as a response to disruptive events. This was to a large extent due to long lead times and higher coordination costs. Managers can use the findings as support in making decisions of where to locate their production.

This dissertation investigates the consequences of supply chain disruptions in pharmaceutical supply chains. Across different studies, I examine various impacts of pharmaceutical supply chain disruptions on buyer’s behavior, medication errors, and market share. In Chapter 1, coauthored with Anita Carson, Erin Fox, and Rena Conti, we demonstrate the stockpiling behaviors of buyers during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Leveraging a quasi-experimental design on IQVIA’s National Sales Perspectives™ data, we show that the sales volume of essential medicines related to U.S. hospital-based COVID-19 treatment concentrated only for the first two months of the pandemic. After these two months, the sales volume of drugs for COVID-19 treatment decreases significantly despite a nationwide increase in COVID-19-related hospitalizations. In Chapter 2, coauthored with Anita Carson and Rena Conti, we examine the impact of a hurricane that decimated the factories of major producers of heparin, an important drug used frequently in hospitals. Using a natural experiment, we find that the hurricane-related pharmaceutical supply chain disruption increased medication error rates of heparin. In addition, we find significant spillover effects. The supply chain disruption increased the medication error rates of a substitute drug. In Chapter 3, coauthored with Anita Carson and Rena Conti, we study how long it takes to recover the market share after the supply chain disruptions using a new metric we propose, Time to Recover Market Share. We explore the differential effects by the brand type of products, the competition level in markets, and the duration of the supply disruptions. With the extensive global supply chain disruptions that we are facing today, understanding their potential consequences is significant. This dissertation advances our understanding of the different impacts of supply chain disruptions and provides practical implications for supply chain members to build resilient supply chains and minimize the effects of supply chain disruptions.

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Globalization, geopolitics, and socio-economic uncertainties increase supply chain vulnerabilities. Climate changes, natural disasters, and man-made accidents have increased the tension of disturbances. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many supply chains worldwide, putting the agri-food supply chain at a higher risk than ever. Agri-food supply chains face severe and complex challenges due to industry-specific characteristics, such as perishability, short shelf life, long lead time production, and weather dependence. Consumer awareness of having healthy, traceable, and environmentally friendly food products has become an increasing concern, making sustainable development also a vital factor in the agri-food industry. To ensure sustainable development, firms must improve supply chain resilience by discovering, nurturing, and developing resilience capability and competitive advantage. Resilience describes the ability to respond quickly to disruptions and help the supply chain recover. Recently, digital technologies have developed rapidly, supported by the Industrial Revolution 4.0, which plays a crucial role in a company's operations. Digital technologies help promote core resilience competencies such as visibility, collaboration, and agility through typical technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, fifth-generation technology, big data analytics, additive manufacturing, tracking, tracing technologies, etc. This study uses a theoretical framework from dynamic capabilities and extant literature reviews to determine the research gap in the agri-food industry. The study uses mixed methods: a qualitative research method to examine and uncover the role of supply chain resilience in responding to disruptions in the agri-food industry, and a second study used a quantitative method to examine the influence of digital technologies on resilience in the agri-food supply chain. This study confirms the critical role of resilience in the agri-food supply chain and the significance of digital technologies in improving supply chain resilience and firm performance. The study also suggests that a firm should proactively build its resilience capability rather than learn from past disruptions. The findings are useful for academics and practitioners alike, in the acknowledgment of the significant effects of digital technologies on supply chain resilience in the agri-food industry. Some technologies are not agri-food specific but have a place in the industry, while others are tailor made for farming applications. Parties in the agri-food industry must take advantage of Industrial Revolution 4.0 and digital technologies to flourish in the agri-food industry. / Business Administration/Interdisciplinary

This dissertation consists of three papers related to firms' resiliency to supply chain disruptions. The first paper seeks to evaluate the effects of supply chain disruptions on firms' performance by using a recent dataset of supply chain disruptions. To this end, we analyzed operating and stock market performances of over 300 firms that experienced a supply chain disruption during 2005 to the end of 2014. The results show that supply chain disruptions are still associated with a significant decrease in operating income, return on sales, return on assets, sales, and a negative performance in total assets. Supply chain disruptions are also associated with a significant negative abnormal stock return on the day of the supply chain disruption announcements. These results are in line with previous findings in the literature. In the second paper, in order to provide a more detailed characterization of negative impacts of disruptions on firms' performance, we develop three complementary measures of system loss: the initial loss due to the disruption, the maximum loss, and the total loss over time. Then, we utilize the contingent resource-based view to evaluate the moderating effects of operational slack and operational scope on the relationship between the severity of supply chain disruptions and the three complementary measures of system loss. We find that maintaining certain aspects of operational slack and broadening business scope can affect these different measures of loss in different ways, although these effects are contingent on the disruptions' severity. The third paper examines relationships between the origin of supply chain disruptions, firms' past experience, and the negative impacts of supply chain disruptions on firms' performance. This third study shows that the impact of external and internal supply chain disruptions on firms' performance can be different when firms do and do not have past experience with similar events. For example, the results show that past experience significantly decreases initial loss, recovery time, and total loss over time experienced by firms after internal disruptions, although past experience may not decrease initial loss, recovery time, and total loss over time in the case of external disruptions. / Ph. D. / Supply chain disruptions occur frequently in today’s complex and interdependent business environment. The Kumamoto earthquakes, Hanjin Shipping’s bankruptcy, and Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, are just a few events that led to major supply chain disruptions in the U.S. and other parts of the world in 2016 and 2017 alone. In this dissertation, we first use a recent dataset of supply chain disruptions to evaluate the effects of supply chain disruptions on firms' performance. The results show that supply chain disruptions are still associated with significant negative impacts on firms’ performance as they have been shown to be in previous studies of earlier datasets. Next, we provide a broader assessment of supply chain disruptions’ impacts on firms’ performance. To accomplish this, we specifically consider the negative impacts with respect to three complementary metrics borrowed from the systems resilience literature: the initial loss, the maximum loss, and the total loss over time. The initial loss and maximum loss metrics evaluate different characteristics of the magnitude of a disruption’s impact on a firm’s performance, whereas total loss over time gives a broader measure of the overall effect of that disruption on that firm, over time. By adopting a more comprehensive view of firms’ performance through the use of such systems resilience concepts, we develop new and expanded inferences about how and when maintaining operational slack and broadening operational scope can benefit firms by helping to reduce the negative impacts of disruptions. Finally, we study the relationships between the negative impacts of supply chain disruptions on firms’ performance, the origin of supply chain disruptions, and firms’ prior experience. The results show that the impact of internal and external supply chain disruptions on firms’ performance can be different when firms do and do not have past experience with similar events. In particular, the results show that past experience significantly decreases initial loss, recovery time, and total loss over time experienced by firms after internal disruptions. However, past experience may not decrease initial loss, recovery time, and total loss over time in the case of external disruptions.

Yes / Purpose Medicine shortages have a detrimental impact on stakeholders in the pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC). Existing studies suggest that building resilience strategies can mitigate the effects of these shortages. As such, this research aims to examine whether resilience strategies can reduce the impact of medicine shortages in the United Kingdom's (UK) PSC. Design/methodology/approach A sequential mixed-methods approach that involved qualitative and quantitative research enquiry was employed in this study. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 23 key UK PSC actors at the qualitative stage. During the quantitative phase, 106 respondents completed the survey questionnaires. The data were analysed using partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Findings The results revealed that reactive and proactive elements of resilience strategies helped tackle medicine shortages. Reactive strategies increased relational issues such as behavioural uncertainty, whilst proactive strategies mitigated them. Practical implications The findings suggest that PSC managers and decision-makers can benefit from adopting structural flexibility and proactive strategies, which are cost-effective measures to tackle medicine shortages. Also engaging in strategic alliances as a proactive strategy mitigates relational issues that may arise in a complex supply chain (SC). Originality/value This study is the first to provide empirical evidence of the impact of resilience strategies in mitigating medicine shortages in the UK's PSC.

Yes / Purpose Drawing on panarchy theory and adaptive cycles, this study aims to investigate the role of reorganisation capabilities on firms' supply chain resilience. The conceptual model underpinned by panarchy theory is tested in the agrifood supply chains disrupted by a geopolitical crisis and faced with material shortage. The study considers circularity as a core reorganisational capability and measures its interplay with two other capabilities: new product development and resource reconfiguration capabilities to achieve supply chain resilience. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative research design is followed to test the relationships between circularity capabilities, resource reconfiguration capabilities, new product development capabilities and supply chain resilience. The data is collected with a survey applied to a sample drawn from food manufacturers who are dependent on wheat and sunflower oil as raw materials and when faced with material shortages. Measurement models and hypotheses are tested with the partial least squared structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) based on 354 responses. Findings Our results show that new product development and resource reconfiguration capabilities fully mediate the relationship between circularity capabilities and supply chain resilience. In other words, the food producers achieved supply chain resilience in response to agrifood supply chain disruption when they mobilised circularity capabilities in combination with new product development and resource reconfiguration capabilities. Originality The study explores the release and reorganisation phases of adaptive cycles in a panarchy by analysing the interplay between different capabilities for building supply chain resilience in response to disruptions challenging supply chains from higher levels of the panarchy. The results extend the theoretical debate between circularity and supply chain resilience to an empirical setting and suggest the introduction of new variables to this relationship. Practical implications The findings suggest that producers in the agrifood industry and even those in other industries need to develop circularity capabilities in combination with new product development and resource reconfiguration capabilities to tackle supply chain disruptions. In a world that is challenged by geopolitical and climate-related crises, this means leveraging 3R practices as well as resource substitution and reconfiguration in new product development processes.