The Multifaceted Role of Social Capital for Achieving Organizational Ambidexterity and Supply Chain Resilience

Abstract

With the increasing frequency and impact of disruptions (i.e., in the wake of COVID 19, Suez Canal blockage), researchers and practitioners are faced with an ongoing challenge to enable supply chain resilience. Drawing on the theory of paradox and ambidexterity, this study highlights paradoxes in enabling supply chain resilience and proposes that firms manage such paradoxes by developing an ambidexterity capability. We build a research model hypothesizing the role of social capital that enables organizational ambidexterity to realise supply chain resilience. The model is tested using structural equation modelling comprising survey data of 204 Pakistani manufacturing firms. Based on the results of this study our overall model finds support with the exception that cognitive capital is not related to ambidexterity. This research contributes to the further conceptualization f paradoxes in supply chain resilience and advances the theory for a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of organizational social capital on ambidexterity. Management relevance statementMost firms are directly or indirectly affected by supply chain disruptions due to Covid-19 lockdowns or its aftermath. This even forces businesses in several cases into bankruptcy. Therefore, across industries across attention is on building resilience in their supply chain functions. Supply chain resilience allows firms to prepare and avoid disruptions and act accordingly in the face of disruptions. In this study, we help managers to understand that based on social capital firms can create supply chain resilience by making use of organizational ambidexterity. Lessons learned through the joint pursuit of alignment and adaptability (ambidexterity) also generate positive outcomes for supply chain resilience. Thus, balancing alignment and adaptability is a better strategy to generate supply chain resilience instead of solely focusing on alignment or adaptability. This provides counterintuitive advice as managers might be otherwise tempted to focus solely on adaptability versus alignment.

The impact of supply chain social capital on supply chain performance: a longitudinal analysis

“…Toyota formed cognitive and relational capital with supply chain partners to harvest effective cooperation. Extensive studies delved into the benefits of social capital in buyer–supplier relationships, in terms of knowledge enrichment (Preston et al , 2017), cost and innovation improvement (Migdadi, 2022; Chae et al , 2020; Kim et al , 2017; Carey et al , 2011), sustainability performance (Alghababsheh and Gallear, 2021; Lee, 2015), operational performance (Celestini et al , 2021), risk mitigation (Chowdhury et al , 2019) and resilience (Ozanne et al , 2022; Daghar et al , 2021; Aslam et al , 2022; Gölgeci and Kuivalainen, 2020; Johnson et al , 2013).…”

Reinforcing resilience on the supply side: the role of supplier capabilities

“…Second, we used the marker variable technique widely applied to detect the common-method bias (Lindell and Whitney, 2001). Based on this technique a variable theoretically unrelated to the variables of interest, namely “experience of the respondent” was identified and its correlation was computed with all the study variables (Aslam et al ., 2022; Hur et al ., 2014; Krishnan et al ., 2006). The correlation was insignificant in most cases especially the dependent variable except SI ( p < 0.05).…”

“…LinkedIn is a fast-growing social networking platform in Pakistan, with more than 774mn users in 200 countries. Previous operations and supply chain studies have used the LinkedIn database for this purpose (Aslam et al ., 2022; Tsanos and Zografos, 2016).…”

The silver lining of supply chain complexity: building supply chain resilience and robustness through exploitation and exploration

“…This is because, although both are important to a company's survival, they often compete for limited resources. Aslam et al (2022) discussed how the TOP and the concept of ambidexterity, which considers both exploitation and exploration practices, can be used together to resolve paradoxical tensions and develop the ability to manage competing demands.…”

“…Structural strategies include diversifying the supply base, redundancy in the supply and distribution network, having strategic reserves and slack production capacities (Ali and Gölgeci, 2019; Pettit et al , 2010). Limited research has espoused the significance of SC exploitation and exploration practices in uncertain, complex and crisis environments (Osiyevskyy et al , 2020; Aslam et al , 2022). These practices stem from the organizational learning literature and are considered dynamic in nature, useful for adaptation and the firm’s survival under SCC (Blome et al , 2013).…”