Supply Chain Management for Extreme Conditions: Research Opportunities

TLDR

Large firms were already worried about sustainability and disruptions from disasters, conflict, and trade, and the COVID‑19 pandemic amplified these concerns by creating extreme, society‑wide supply‑chain challenges. The authors argue that supply‑chain management must be rethought to cope with extreme conditions such as pandemics, war, climate change, or biodiversity collapse. The essay outlines key challenges and responses, then identifies research opportunities for retailers’ survival against e‑commerce giants, mixed human‑robot workforces, shared distribution capacity for medical goods, and government‑led industry commons.

Abstract

Large companies were concerned about their supply chains with environmental and social sustainability and disruption from natural disasters, conflict, and trade disagreements even before the advent of COVID‐19. The additional challenges presented by COVID‐19 in 2020 are “extreme” in being distinct from supply chain risk in that not just particular companies, but also entire societies are affected. Therefore, it is appropriate to rethink supply chain management (SCM) for research and practice to cope with extreme conditions, now and in the future, whether due to pandemics, war, climate change, or biodiversity collapse. In this essay, we first present the widespread challenges, along with some of the responses. We then list research opportunities for supply chain management in extreme conditions. These opportunities pertain to retailers' survival in the face of highly successful e‐commerce giants and the mixed use of robots and human workers. There are also opportunities to share supply chain capacity in distribution and coopetition regarding medically necessary items such as anti‐virals or vaccines. The growing role of government in supporting business, including the creation of industry commons, also presents avenues for further research.