Management antecedents of supply chain resilience: An integrating perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized that supply chain resilience is an essential remedy for companies recovering from supply chain disruptions. In the VUCA era, many studies have identified three dimensions (sensing capability, seizing capability and reconfiguring capability) as organizational antecedents that contribute to supply chain resilience from the perspective of dynamic capability. However, the current literature on the antecedents of supply chain resilience largely lacks a managerial perspective. Research has shown that firms rely on supply chain managers when developing supply chain resilience. Nevertheless, little is known about the mechanisms at play in supply chain resilience and its organizational antecedents. Based on existing research, this study explores the paths and effects of managerial antecedents (dynamic management capability) and organizational antecedents (dynamic capability) on supply chain resilience by integrating dynamic and management capabilities. Through a questionnaire survey of supply chain managers in Chinese manufacturing companies, 223 valid sample data points were collected and tested empirically. The results show that the three dimensions of dynamic management capability (managers’ social capital, human capital and cognition) are positively related to supply chain resilience and that supply chain resilience is influenced by the mediating effect of the three dimensions of dynamic capability (sensing, seizing and reconfiguring capabilities). We argue that managers should focus on developing their social capital, human capital and cognition to improve supply chain resilience. This study explains dynamic management capability's role and logical path in supply chain resilience. Furthermore, it examines the mediating effects and internal logic of the three dimensions of dynamic capabilities, providing a new perspective for supply chain resilience research and bringing some management insights for managers to effectively improve firm supply chain resilience in terms of social relationship management and related learning skills.