Supply chain resilience: an empirical examination of the bouncing back or forward phenomenon

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recently, scholars identify the significance of accurately capturing what it means to be resilient and its implications for firms and supply chains. This research advances the understanding of resilience and empirically identifies its influence towards ‘bouncing back’ to the firms’ previous supply chain state or ‘bouncing forward’ through an evolution during and post-disruption. This research develops a theoretical resilience model grounded in TCE and Panarchy theory and tests its application through survey research and structural equation modelling across a mix of 15 industries with 298 supply chain professionals in the United States. This study finds that resilience leads to firms ‘bouncing back’ or returning to their pre-disruption state after a disruption has occurred. Consequently, managers can focus their cognitive capacity towards ‘bouncing back’ to the firm’s previous state following a disruption and not misappropriating resources towards long-term supply chain reconfiguration heroics.