Eleven years of cyberattacks on Chinese supply chains in an era of cyber warfare, a review and future research agenda

Abstract

Purpose

The contribution of this study aims to twofold: First, it provides an overview of the current state of research on cyberattacks on Chinese supply chains (SCs). Second, it offers a look at the Chinese Government’s approach to fighting cyberattacks on Chinese SCs and its calls for global governance.

Design/methodology/approach

A comprehensive literature review was conducted on Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science, in Social Sciences Citation Index journals, Scopus and Google Scholar, published between 2010–2021. A systematic review of practitioner literature was also conducted.

Findings

Chinese SCs have become a matter of national security, especially in the era of cyber warfare. The risks to SC have been outlined. Cybersecurity regulations are increasing as China aims to build a robust environment for cyberspace development. Using the Technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework, the results show that the top five factors influencing the adoption process in firms are as follows: relative advantage and technological readiness (Technology context); top management support and firm size (Organization context) and government policy and regulations (Environment context).

Research limitations/implications

This review focuses on cyberattacks on Chinese SCs and great care was taken when selecting search terms. However, the author acknowledges that the choice of databases/terms may have excluded a few articles on cyberattacks from this review.

Practical implications

This review provides managerial insights for SC practitioners into how cyberattacks have the potential to disrupt the global SC network.

Originality/value

Past researchers proposed a taxonomic approach to evaluate progress with SC integration into Industry 4.0; in contrast, this study is one of the first steps toward an enhanced understanding of cyberattacks on Chinese SCs and their contribution to the global SC network using the TOE framework.

Citation

Pérez-Morón, J. (2022), "Eleven years of cyberattacks on Chinese supply chains in an era of cyber warfare, a review and future research agenda", Journal of Asia Business Studies, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 371-395. https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-11-2020-0444