Resilience and agility in sustainable supply chains: A relational and dynamic capabilities view

The outbreak of COVID-19 has exposed vulnerabilities of supply chains (SCs) and has further accentuated the importance of creating resilient, agile and sustainable SCs. The present study assesses the role of SC technology capabilities in supporting organisations to enhance their SC resilience, thereby improving them on the sustainability front. Drawing from the relational and dynamic capabilities view, the study develops a conceptual model to test the hypothesised relationships. We test the hypotheses employing a survey-based approach that utilises a cross-sectional design. The study uses factor analysis and structural equation modelling techniques to test the fit of the measures to the structural models. We collected the data from the manufacturing / logistics firms in the UK and the US. The findings indicate that SC technology capabilities, agility and visibility positively enhance SC resilience, which in turn affects SC sustainability positively. We understand how SC resilience can determine the effectiveness of the efforts towards enhancing technology capability. Firms must collaborate and build technology capabilities to achieve resilient and sustainable SCs. This research would assist the practitioners and researchers in understanding the role of technology capability and SC resilience and guide them with respect to the configuration of sustainable SCs.