The Concept of Resilience in Supply Chain: A Grounded Theory Approach

Abstract

Today, despite the fact that most of the supply chains have a suitable structure and high operative effectiveness, quick changes in the business environment, the high number of innovations, customer’s expectations and requirements, increased communication between suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors all contribute to high levels of uncertainty, disruptions, chaotic behaviors, challenges and threats in supply changes. These unexpected risks and natural inevitable changes force supply chain management to adopt new and innovative approaches in order to deal better with risk-related disruptions.The resilient supply chain is one of these approaches. The goal of this study is to use the grounded theory method to investigate the concept of resilience and identify each of the resilience factors in supply chain studies. Adaptability, reversibility/recovery, versatility, reactivity, response to disruption, and the ability to continue working in difficult situations were identified as six main concepts for improving supply chain resilience as a result of analyses. This article will help researchers in their understanding of the concept of supply chain resilience and the factors that influence it.