The response of the Brazilian cashew nut supply chain to natural disasters: A practice-based view

Abstract

In the face of natural disasters, companies attempt to maintain the sustainability of their business by implementing an appropriate set of organisational practices. Based on the practice-based view of strategic management, this paper aims to identify intra- and inter-organisational supply chain practices that help focal companies in the cashew nut supply chain in Brazil respond to natural disasters. To this end, three in-depth, qualitative case studies informed by semi-structured interviews and secondary data were conducted in Brazil. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis supported by NVivo software and based on an analytic framework that links resources and practices to performance in a natural disaster context. The findings indicate that companies embark on different trajectories depending on the resources and practices they deploy in response to natural disasters. While one company demonstrated a negative performance due to competitive inertia and low productivity, two companies maintained and increased their performance results based on inter-organisational collaboration. Findings demonstrate that responding to natural disasters requires companies to reorganise their strategies towards sustainability and to develop new practices such as food safety, organic production and social responsibility.