Supply chain responses to global disruptions and its ripple effects: an institutional complexity perspective

Abstract

The recent disruption of global supply chains and its ripple effects has led to multiple new, often conflicting, demands from governments, businesses, and society for more resilient supply chains, thereby elevating the debate about supply chains to a broader institutional level. As a response, this article aims to broaden how supply chain scholars view decision-making for supply chain resilience from an institutional perspective – in particular, using the construct of institutional complexity. We argue that the inherent complexity in supply chains, consisting of multiple organizations and multiple institutional environments, represents a different playing field and results in different responses, in particular when confronted with disruptions. We provide a systematic and structured understanding of how the interactions of institutional logics, influenced by field-levels structures and processes, impact global supply chains and its constituents. Using existing literature on institutional complexity and works on the effects of institutional logics, we present not only field-level structures and attributes influencing and shaping institutional logics in the supply chain, but also discuss and contrast existing theories and concepts by highlighting the differences between supply chain and organizational responses both on an institutional and an overarching operational level.