A Typology of Supply Network Resilience Strategies: Complex Collaborations in a Complex World

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the broad and diverse challenges that supply networks face in preparing for and adapting to significant supply and demand disruptions. While much has been written about resilience strategies, few consider resiliency from a network level perspective. In this essay, we explain a typology of resiliency strategies linked to different types of collaboration within and between supply networks. Existing literature focuses on two of these types, micro- and macro-level supply network resilience. Micro-level resilience occurs when buyers and suppliers coordinate directly on supply risk prevention and recovery. Macro-level resilience occurs when corporations, including competitors, collaborate with institutions such as government or trade associations to manage or regulate longer-term supply risks. This essay identifies a third type, meso-level resilience. Meso-level resilience emerges when multiple supply networks collaborate on short- to medium-term supply risks. These collaborations tend to be more opportunistic and ad hoc than micro- or macro-level collaborations, and we argue that they can be viewed as complex adaptive systems, exhibiting self-organization and dynamism. We identify a number of novel characteristics of meso-level resilience and discuss research implications.