Abstract:
Global Supply Chains (SCs) are highly vulnerable to unpredictable disruptions, which
occur in a greater frequency and with numerous consequences on SCs. However,
resilient SCs can recover from disruptions and achieve business continuity in turbulent
cases, while robust SCs maintain their planned performance following disruptions.
Hence, SCs should be both robust and resilient to combat the inevitable risk innate in
the firm’s operations. However, there were no substantial studies on the investigation
of improving SC resilience and robustness simultaneously during disruptions.
Literature favours arguing that proper management of SC risks can prevent, detect,
respond and recover supply chains from the impacts of disruptions and enhance SC
resilience and robustness. Digital technologies, information, and data analytics help
firms manage SC risks through the accurate processing of data and sharing of
insightful information. In addition, collaborations with SC partners enable firms
collectively deal with SC risks and enhance SC resilience and robustness. However,
there is a dearth of sufficient literature on empirical investigations into the effect of
analytics-based and collaboration-based supply chain risk management (SCRM) on
SC resilience and robustness. Apparel manufacturing is a leading industry in Sri
Lanka which encountered significant impacts during the recent Covid-19 disruptions.
As this sector is working with some of the most globally connected SCs the resilience
and robustness of SCs at disruptions are vital for the country’s economic stability. As
per the Organizational Information Processing Theory (OIPT), firms should develop
the capabilities to gather processes and act on information from the environment to
mitigate uncertain ambiguity. According to the extended Relational View (RV),
relational capabilities such as communication, corporation, and integration would be
helpful for firms to enhance corporative relationships and effective sharing of
information between SC partners, which are important to reduce SC risks, particularly
during disruptive situations. Hence, drawing on the OIPT and the extended RV, this
study develops a conceptual model to examine the impact of analytics and
collaboration-based SCRM on supply chain resilience and robustness with special
emphasis on apparel manufacturing organizations in Sri Lanka.
