Understanding resilience from a resource orchestration perspective: findings from six cases

Supply chain resilience has gained traction but is often studied at the event level, providing a more or less static view. This study goes beyond static resource-based approaches widely adopted in the literature by providing insights into the orchestration mechanisms leading to the conversion of lower-order resources into higher-order resilience capabilities. In doing so, we investigate how resource orchestration processes i.e. resource bundling, structuring, and leveraging, result in flexibility, agility, redundancy, and collaboration.  An exploratory case study design involving six companies with multiple respondents, vulnerable to supply chain disruptions is used to examine the dynamics of resource orchestration processes. Data is collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews. We find that several overarching orchestrating concepts for resource structuring, bundling, and leveraging during a disruption's preparation and response phases. Resource orchestration concepts related to supplier relationship building, resource portfolio management, resource integration, reconfiguring, and redeployment are found to be important enablers of supply chain resilience. Hence, this study adds a new perspective to the supply chain resilience literature, while it helps managers to understand how to manage scarce resources to extract their full value in assuring a resilient supply chain.

Dirk Pieter van Donk is a full professor in Operations Management, Department Operations, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen His main research areas are Supply Chain Management and Integration, and Supply Chain Resilience. In both, main research questions relate to a better understanding of the underlying dimensions, the need for integration and resilience, their relationship with contextual factors, and the effects on performance.
His research has been published in, among others, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Supply Chain Management, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Supply Chain Management: an International Journal, and International Journal on Production Economics. In 2024 the European Management Association (EurOMA) awarded him with the honorary EurOMA Fellowship Award in recognition of his contribution to the OM research and service to the EurOMA community.
Currently, he serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Operations Management, the Journal of Supply Chain Management, and the International Journal of Operations & Production Management, while also being ad-hoc reviewer for other journals in the OM/SCM field.