Managing operational risks through knowledge sharing in food supply chains

Assessing Risks in Dairy Supply Chain Systems: A System Dynamics Approach

Due to the dynamic nature of the food supply chain system, food supply management could suffer because of, and be interrupted by, unforeseen events. Considering the perishable nature of fresh food products and their short life cycle, fresh food companies feel immense pressure to adopt an efficient and proactive risk management system. The risk management aspects within the food supply chains have been addressed in several studies. However, only a few studies focus on the complex interactions between the various types of risks impacting food supply chain functionality and dynamic feedback effects, which can generate a reliable risk management system. This paper strives to contribute to this evident research gap by adopting a system dynamics modelling approach to generate a systemic risk management model. The system dynamics model serves as the basis for the simulation of risk index values and can be explored in future work to further analyse the dynamic risk’s effect on the food supply chain system’s behaviour. According to a literature review of published research from 2017 to 2021, nine different risks across the food supply chain were identified as a subsection of the major risk categories: macro-level and operational risks. Following this stage, two of the risk groups identified first were integrated with a developed system dynamics model to conduct this research and to evaluate the interaction between the risks and the functionality of the three main dairy supply chain processes: production, logistics, and retailing. The key findings drawn from this paper can be beneficial for enhancing managerial discernment regarding the critical role of system dynamics models for analysing various types of risks across the food supply chain process and improving its efficiency.

Reimagining global food value chains through effective resilience to COVID-19 shocks and similar future events: A dynamic capability perspective

The restructuring of global value/supply chains gained increasing attention as the unprecedented COVID-19 echoed around the world. Yet, the COVID-19 related theory-driven, large scale quantitative, and empirical studies are relatively scarce. This study advances the extant literature by empirically investigating how do firms in the global food value chains (GFVCs) re-imagine their businesses structure in response to the COVID-19-becoming more resilient and competitive to the current pandemic and similar future events. We leverage a unique data of 231 senior managers of the Australian GFVCs and examine their firms' response strategies. Drawing upon key insights from the dynamic capability view, we find that GFVCs' competitiveness is achieved when exposure to COVID-19 shocks elicits dynamic capabilities-readiness, response, recovery-and these capabilities work jointly and sequentially to cultivate resilience. A key finding of this study is that firms with domestic plus global value chain partners are more resilient than those having only global business partners. This finding implies that excessive reliance on offshoring sometimes becomes lethal, especially amid unexpected and prolonged global shocks and, therefore, companies should strike a balance between domestic and global business partners to remain competitive. These findings offer important contributions to theory, practice, and UN sustainable development goals.

Analysing developing countries approaches of supply chain resilience to COVID-19

Purpose

The Covid-19 pandemic has made it essential to explore the resilience factors specific to developing regions, not only because they pose threats of extreme poverty and offer a novel context but also because they play an important role in globalisation.

Design/methodology/approach

A mixed-method approach was undertaken to address this novel pandemic situation. First, an open-ended structured questionnaire was developed, and data were collected from three neighbouring emerging economies: Pakistan, India and Iran. Experts' perspectives on vulnerabilities, response measures, resilience and restoration of supply chain activities, and the role of social capital were collected. Second, building upon the findings from phase one of the studies, a quantitative structured questionnaire using the supply chain operational reference (SCOR) model was used to collect data in a structured manner. This quantitative data were further analysed using frequency and contingency analysis.

Findings

The findings from the first phase of the study inductively derive 36 resilience categories. Later, the contingency findings show that supply chain (SC) disruption is a major vulnerability for emerging economies, whereas solutions offered to combat it lay in the reconfiguration of resources, such as financial, technological, human, information and material. Additionally, supply network structure and social capital play an integral part in making SCs resilient against disruption.

Research limitations/implications

The respondents comprise the academics/SC researchers, which make the findings interesting though they lack the industrial experts' perspectives, directly. Nevertheless, the propositions can be tested in industrial settings to see whether the results are limited to a specific industrial setting or are rather generalised.

Practical implications

Similarly, practitioners and policy makers can incorporate the SCOR metrics/factors outlined in this study into their performance measurement systems and ensure continuous monitoring for firm's resilience.

Originality/value

The study offers a holistic understanding of the developing regions' approaches to Covid-19. The paper also takes a social capital perspective to explain firms' resilience in these emerging economies.

Research on the impact of knowledge sharing on risk control of inclusive finance in rural areas during the post-COVID-19 era

Purpose

This study aims to focus on the impact of multi-level knowledge sharing between and within organizations on the risk control of rural inclusive finance. The paper presents a synergistic risk control system integrating external and internal factors for rural inclusive finance by constructing different knowledge-sharing platforms in an environment, which is full of many uncertainties.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on survey methods. To achieve the research objectives, the authors adopt a single case study approach. For data collection, the authors apply a wide variety of methods such as semi-structured interviews, field visits, second-hand databases and official websites.

Findings

The results emphasize that using multi-level knowledge sharing such as the inter- and intra-organizational level, can facilitate the risk control of rural inclusive finance during the post-COVID-19 era. Furthermore, it is also noted that achieving knowledge sharing at different levels by building diverse knowledge-sharing platforms can promote the risk control of rural inclusive finance from the individual-organization level to the chain level of multi-organization collaboration, which contributes to the formation of symbiotic risk control ecology.

Research limitations/implications

The authors have formed the “Chinese wisdom” to deal with inclusive financial risks and to promote in-depth development in relation to the “last mile” practice of inclusive finance, which means the final and the most important phase of a project. The conclusions contribute to enriching the outcomes regarding the risk control of rural inclusive finance, provide experiences to its sustainable development and offer a reference to other countries with their risk control of rural inclusive finance.

Originality/value

Drawing on the knowledge-sharing approach, this study creatively resolves the persistent problems in the risk control of rural inclusive finance, which forms a powerful supplement to the extant literature. Meanwhile, the paper combines the two contextual factors of the post-COVID-19 era and emerging economies, which can be deemed as a novel attempt.

Collaborative risk management in decentralised multi-tier global food supply chains: an exploratory study

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to explore the value of collaborative risk management in a decentralised multi-tier global fresh produce supply chain.

Design/methodology/approach

This study utilised a mixed methods approach. A qualitative field study was conducted to examine the need for collaborative risk management. The simulation experiments with industry datasets were conducted to assess whether risk-sharing contracts work in mitigating joint risks in parts of and across the supply chain.

Findings

The qualitative field study revealed risk propagation and the inefficiency of company-specific risk management strategies in value delivery. The simulation results indicated that risk-sharing contracts can incentivise various actors to absorb interrelated risks for value creation.

Research limitations/implications

The research is limited to risks relevant to supply chain processes in the Australia–China table grrape supply chain and does not consider product-related risks and the risk-taking behaviours of supply chain actors.

Practical implications

Collaborative risk management can be deployed to mitigate systematic risks that disrupt global fresh produce supply chains. The results offer evidence-based knowledge to supply chain professionals in understanding the value of collaborative risk assessment and management and provide insights on how to conduct collaborative risk management for effective risk management.

Originality/value

The results contribute to the supply chain risk management literature by new collaborative forms for effective risk management and strategic competition of “supply chain to supply chain” in multi-tier food supply chains.

Implementation of supply chain 4.0 in the food and beverage industry: perceived drivers and barriers

Purpose

Despite considerable growth in literature on Industry 4.0 technologies, the research on the factors influencing the investment on these technologies in pursuit of supply chain 4.0 is yet incipient. The study aims to fill this knowledge void by exploring the perceived drivers and barriers intertwined in the implementation of supply chain 4.0 in the context of food and beverage industry.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative exploratory research was employed involving 20 semi-structured interviews with senior managers from the Australian food and beverage supply chain. The interviews' data were analysed with VOSViewer software version 1.6.14.

Findings

The results unravel that reduction in supply-demand misalignment, fast-changing consumer's needs, threat of legal penalties and cost optimisation are the key drivers; whereas lack of collaboration, organisational inertia and lack of awareness are the critical barriers to implement supply chain 4.0.

Research limitations/implications

The study derives seven propositions and a theoretical framework that need to be empirically corroborated.

Practical implications

Understanding of drivers and barriers will help practitioners to make more informed decision in implementation of supply chain 4.0.

Social implications

Implementation of supply chain 4.0 can enhance the performance of the food and beverage industry, thus offering more job opportunities and sustained food supply.

Originality/value

This is the first study in exploring drivers and barriers to the implementation of supply chain 4.0; thus, adds new knowledge to the growing body of the literature. The paper introduces a novel method for qualitative data analysis contributing to the methodological development of the supply chain management field.