On entrepreneurial resilience among micro‐entrepreneurs in the face of economic disruptions… A little help from friends

The sustainable development of rural-to-urban food supply chains in developing nations

Purpose

This paper explores how firms develop and mature sustainable supply chains (SSCs) in developing nations (DNs). The primitive resources, infrastructures and understanding of SSCs in DNs often hinder both the ability of SSCs to mature and their effectiveness in delivering environmental, social and economic goals. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Through the supply chain life cycle (SCLC) lens, the authors analyzed an embedded case study of a Vietnamese end-to-end food supply chain (using 32 semi-structured interviews and archival data) and interviewed senior leadership of three other food companies in early 2019. A post hoc study including five reinterviews in the same Vietnamese case company's supply chain also further validated the study in 2021.

Findings

The authors’ analyses reveal that changes in DN stakeholders' behaviors can quickly move firms' SSCs along the SCLC closer toward a mature stage, in which firms and their network stakeholders can create more sustainable value. They also identify strategies for firms to consider when developing their SSCs to activate these behavioral changes.

Originality/value

While many authors discuss SSCs' benefits for the environment and society, few assess how firms can design and operate SSCs effectively given the limited resources, infrastructures and SSC knowledge in DNs. This paper offers a compelling framework focusing on engaging various DNs' stakeholders to understand the life cycle of SSCs in less developed countries, in order to accelerate DNs' firms through early development toward a more SSC.

The effects of social capital on entrepreneurial resilience of SME from China: A moderated mediation model of entrepreneurial passion and Confucian traditional golden-mean thinking

Small and medium-sized startups play a crucial role in a country's sustainable development. SMEs are at an early development stage, which means weaker institutional norms and successful paradigms, tending to suffer from exceptionally high failure rates because of many constraints, including a lack of resources and credit to access the core information. The higher the environmental uncertainty, the more likely that new start-ups rely on all kinds of social links for acquiring resources. As a critical ability to withstand and overcome obstacles, entrepreneurial resilience is an essential personal characteristic to ensure the sustainability of new ventures. The purpose of this study is to investigate the internal mechanism through which SME entrepreneurs' social capital affects entrepreneurial resilience. To reveal the internal mechanism, we propose a moderated and mediation model. Using survey data from SEM entrepreneurs in China, hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping model are adapted to test and verify mediation and moderation effects. The results show that social capital indeed positively influences entrepreneurial resilience directly and partly through the mediating effect of harmonious entrepreneurial passion and obsessive entrepreneurial passion. Moreover, findings suggest golden-mean thinking negatively moderates the relationship between obsessive entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial resilience yet positively moderates the relationship between social capital and entrepreneurial resilience. Based on these findings, we conclude that entrepreneurial resilience may be achieved more effectively through the complex internal process of social capital, entrepreneurial passion, and golden-mean thinking. Finally, the study proposes the theoretical and practical implications and suggestions for follow-up research.

SMEs navigating COVID-19: The influence of social capital and dynamic capabilities on organizational resilience

Building the resilience capacity of businesses is important for economic, social and community recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic, yet organizational resilience is under-examined in the marketing literature. Crises and disasters can significantly impact small and medium enterprises (SMEs), affecting their ability to mitigate, respond and recover. Social capital (SC) is a key resource that can be mobilized by SMEs to tap the resources embedded in internal and external relationships to respond to disruptions, yet the mechanism through which SC facilitates organizational resilience is not clear. Using middle-range theorizing, we propose dynamic capabilities (DC) as the key sensing, seizing and reconfiguration resources that transform SC into organizational resilience. The results from a sample of SMEs (n = 419) in Australia and New Zealand demonstrate that internal SC has a positive effect on external SC (customer-focused). Only internal SC has a direct effect on organizational resilience. DC partially and fully mediates the relationship between internal and external SC and organizational resilience respectively. Implications for theory and practice are offered.

Comparing regions globally: impacts of COVID-19 on supply chains – a Delphi study

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged supply chains (SCs) around the globe unprecedentedly. This study aims to gain insights on the impacts of the pandemic on SCs and their management under consideration of different regional contexts on a global scale.

Design/methodology/approach

A Delphi study collects the expertise of global SC academics on the SC vulnerabilities and the measures for responding to disruptions, improving resilience, and restoring operations. Data from three polls are systematically analyzed by content, frequency, and cluster analysis.

Findings

The study identifies and ranks ten major issues related to SC vulnerabilities and management strategies for specific SC processes and geographical regions. Detected differences among the considered geographical regions point towards particular challenges and call for specific measures to integrate regional contingencies into SC management. In a regional comparison, China and Iran as well as Africa clearly stand out, but also Europe/North America, India/Pakistan, and Brazil show geographical particularities.

Research limitations/implications

The responses are collected against the COVID-19 pandemic, while the findings show differences among the regions thereby arguing for taking regional contingencies into account in managing SCs.

Practical implications

SC resilience is a core aim, which was emphasized by the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings provide insights and challenges that managers would have to meet in the different regions covered.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to existing knowledge on SC risks and SC resilience in context to extreme situations. Given that events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, will become more frequent in the future due to climate change and geopolitical tensions, insights into how to manage SCs under extreme conditions and into regional differences are crucial.