Realizing supply chain agility under time pressure: Ad hoc supply chains during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Jasmina Müller, Kai Hoberg, Jan C. FransooOperations供应链管理UTD24

Journal of Operations Management2022-08-18Kühne Logistics University; Tilburg UniversityDOI

Citations74

Abstract When the COVID‐19 pandemic began in 2020, the medical product industry faced an unusual demand shock for personal protective equipment (PPE), including face masks, face shields, disinfectants, and gowns. Companies from various industries responded to the urgent need for these potentially life‐saving products by adopting ad hoc supply chains in an exceptionally short time: They found new suppliers, developed the products, ramped‐up production, and distributed to new customers within weeks or even days. We define these supply chains as ad hoc supply chains that are built for a specific need, an immediate need, and a time‐limited need. By leveraging a unique sampling, we examined how companies realize supply chain agility when building ad hoc supply chains. We develop an emergent theoretical model that proposes dynamic capabilities to enable companies building ad hoc supply chains in response to a specific need, moderated by an entrepreneurial orientation allowing firms to leverage dynamic capabilities at short notice and a temporary orientation that increases a company's focus on exploiting the short‐term opportunity of ad hoc supply chains.

Supply chainBusinessLeverage (statistics)Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)Industrial organizationNoticePandemicMarketingComputer scienceMedicineQuality and Supply ManagementSupply Chain Resilience and Risk Management