Supply chain resilience: an adaptive cycle approach

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for extending an understanding of resilience in complex adaptive system (CAS) such as supply chains using the adaptive cycle framework. The adaptive cycle framework may help explain change and the long term dynamics and resilience in supply chain networks. Adaptive cycles assume that dynamic systems such as supply chain networks go through stages of growth, development, collapse and reorientation. Adaptive cycles suggest that the resilience of a complex adaptive system such as supply chains are not fixed but expand and contract over time and resilience requires such systems to navigate each of the cycles’ four stages successfully.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses the adaptive cycle framework to explain supply chain resilience (SCRES). It explores the phases of the adaptive cycle, its pathologies and key properties and links these to competences and behaviors that are important for system and SCRES. The study develops a conceptual framework linking adaptive cycles to SCRES. The goal is to extend dynamic theories of SCRES by borrowing from the adaptive cycle framework. We review the literature on the adaptive cycle framework, its properties and link these to SCRES.FindingsThe key insight is that the adaptive cycle concept can broaden our understanding of SCRES beyond focal scales, including cross-scale resilience. As a framework, the adaptive cycle can explain the mechanisms that support or prevent resilience in supply chains. Adaptive cycles may also give us new insights into the sort of competences required to avoid stagnation, promote system renewal as resilience expands and contracts over time.Research limitations/implicationsThe adaptive cycle may move our discussion of resilience beyond engineering and ecological resilience to include evolutionary resilience. While the first two presently dominates our theorizing on SCRES, evolutionary resilience may be more insightful than both are. Adaptive cycles capture the idea of change, adaptation and transformation and allow us to explore cross-scale resilience.Practical implicationsKnowing how to prepare for and overcoming key pathologies associated with each stage of the adaptive cycle can broaden our repertoire of strategies for managing SCRES across time. Human agency is important for preventing systems from crossing critical thresholds into imminent collapse. More importantly, disruptions may present an opportunity for innovation and renewal for building more resilience supply chains.Originality/valueThis research is one of the few studies that have applied the adaptive cycle concept to SCRES and extends our understanding of the dynamic structure of SCRES

Whose resilience matters? Addressing issues of scale in supply chain resilience

“…Therefore, focusing on a scale of analysis consistent with the objectives of a focal firm is not sufficient to understand or describe the outcomes associated with these interactions at the scale of the supply chain. A deeper understanding of supply chain resilience and sustainability should recognize interactions that involve multiple nested scales and levels (Carter et al, 2015; Adobor and McMullen, 2018; Meschnig et al, 2018; Adobor, 2020; Wieland, 2021). Likewise, research focused on building upon the boundary conditions of a supply chain per Carter et al (2015) is also needed.…”

“…Christopher and Peck, 2004; Williams et al, 2009; Voss and Williams, 2013; Wieland, 2013; Heckman et al, 2015; Hohenstein et al, 2015; Ivanov et al, 2017; Linnenluecke, 2017; Kochan and Nowicki, 2018). Nonetheless, there is a need to improve our understanding of the linkages between resilience and the multiscale dynamics that explain how supply chains evolve over time and space, as recognition of the multiscale dynamic interactions that characterize supply chains as CASs is still missing (Carter et al, 2015; Adobar and McMullen, 2018; Meschnig et al, 2018; Adobar, 2020). We believe that incorporating the concepts of scale and mismatched scales into discussions of supply chain resilience is an essential part of broadening our understanding of these linkages.…”

“…Although the mental model of a supply chain as a CAS that continually emerges over time and space has been widely adopted in SCM (e.g. Choi et al, 2001; Pathak et al, 2007; Kim et al, 2011; Carter et al, 2015; Choi et al, 2015; Kauffman et al, 2018; Adobar, 2020), much of the contemporary SCM literature conceptualizes resilience from the perspective of a focal firm (typically a larger buyer) or an industry where “supply chain resilience” is a proxy term for a firm’s ability to bounce “back” or “forward” to a clearly defined equilibrium following some type of disruptive event. Scholars in other disciplines, however, routinely point out that equilibrium‐based definitions of resilience are much too conceptually and practically limiting, as CASs are continually evolving systems that never come to rest in equilibrium (Folke et al, 2010; Pendall et al, 2010; Simmie and Martin, 2010; Davoudi et al, 2012; Davoudi et al, 2013; Sterk et al, 2017).…”

Artificial intelligence for supply chain resilience: learning from Covid-19

“…Supply chain resilience is the capability of a supply chain to cope with unforeseen, disrupting events and to recover quickly to its original level of performance, or to a new level required to maintain the expected operating, financial, and market performance (Adobor, 2020;Ponomarov & Holcomb, 2009). To build a resilient supply chain, firms need to identify and assess the nodes for risks, their severity, and the likelihood of occurrence, and how these risks can be detected (Dubey et al, 2017;Chang et al, 2015).…”

Investigating the logistics costs model: recent update in Indonesia

“…Blecker (2007) and Adobor (2020) found that logistical work is a type of service. The service sector is recognized as very important to be part of today's industrialized economy.…”