Practices and mechanisms for increasing supply chain ​​resilience: the supply chain resilience sheaf

This paper approaches the dynamics of supply chain resilience from the company from customer's point of view, seeking to illuminate which mechanisms and practices are used (intentionally or unintentionally) to increase the resilience of their critical suppliers, and thus to evaluate the impact of these mechanisms and practices on its entire supply chain (SC).

The authors explore some emerging developments in organizational resilience with an embedded case study of a group of focal companies operating in the automotive SC. Therefore, semi-structured interviews have been conducted with buyers and sellers using content analysis, in the light of the prospect theory and the resource dependency theory.

The results indicate the existence of a resilience sheaf that runs through the entire supply chain, formed by a set of 11 formal mechanisms and informal practices.

This resilience sheaf can guide managers thorough SC resilience development by taking its components as a reference and optimizing the use of resources both effectively and efficiently.

SC resilience has been conceptualized as a function of an organization's situational awareness, the identification and management of key vulnerabilities and the ability to successfully react in a complex, dynamic and interconnected environment. These propositions highlight the features of both internal and external mechanisms to enhance organizational resilience.