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Analysing developing countries approaches of supply chain resilience to COVID-19

Sadaf Aman (Supply Chain Management, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany)
Stefan Seuring (Supply Chain Management, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany)

The International Journal of Logistics Management

ISSN: 0957-4093

Article publication date: 29 December 2021

Issue publication date: 22 June 2023

1225

Abstract

Purpose

The Covid-19 pandemic has made it essential to explore the resilience factors specific to developing regions, not only because they pose threats of extreme poverty and offer a novel context but also because they play an important role in globalisation.

Design/methodology/approach

A mixed-method approach was undertaken to address this novel pandemic situation. First, an open-ended structured questionnaire was developed, and data were collected from three neighbouring emerging economies: Pakistan, India and Iran. Experts' perspectives on vulnerabilities, response measures, resilience and restoration of supply chain activities, and the role of social capital were collected. Second, building upon the findings from phase one of the studies, a quantitative structured questionnaire using the supply chain operational reference (SCOR) model was used to collect data in a structured manner. This quantitative data were further analysed using frequency and contingency analysis.

Findings

The findings from the first phase of the study inductively derive 36 resilience categories. Later, the contingency findings show that supply chain (SC) disruption is a major vulnerability for emerging economies, whereas solutions offered to combat it lay in the reconfiguration of resources, such as financial, technological, human, information and material. Additionally, supply network structure and social capital play an integral part in making SCs resilient against disruption.

Research limitations/implications

The respondents comprise the academics/SC researchers, which make the findings interesting though they lack the industrial experts' perspectives, directly. Nevertheless, the propositions can be tested in industrial settings to see whether the results are limited to a specific industrial setting or are rather generalised.

Practical implications

Similarly, practitioners and policy makers can incorporate the SCOR metrics/factors outlined in this study into their performance measurement systems and ensure continuous monitoring for firm's resilience.

Originality/value

The study offers a holistic understanding of the developing regions' approaches to Covid-19. The paper also takes a social capital perspective to explain firms' resilience in these emerging economies.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The project is funded by Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD, German Academic Exchange Service) title “Exploring focal firm's performance features in BoP SC management – taking the case of Pakistan”, Grant number 57459038.

The authors would like to acknowledge Nikolaj Heß and Frederik Meissner, two master students from University of Kassel, Germany for their contribution (specifically in collecting literature and condensing the statements) in the first phase of this MMD. The authors would like to thank Marcus Brandenburg (University of Applied Sciences, Flensburg Germany), Philipp Sauer (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy) and Raja Usman Khalid (Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan) for their suggestions, recommendations and support for this piece of research.

Declaration of interest: None

Citation

Aman, S. and Seuring, S. (2023), "Analysing developing countries approaches of supply chain resilience to COVID-19", The International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 34 No. 4, pp. 909-934. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-07-2021-0362

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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