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Abstract
Even though supply chain agility (SCA) has been considered an essential concept in supply chain management (SCM) research, the way it is experienced and manifested, especially by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has received much less attention. Our purpose is to focus on SME organisational vulnerabilities in the context of increased environmental uncertainty, and explore how SCA is developed and applied by SMEs amid their vulnerabilities. By relying on insights from comparative case studies of three British SMEs, we examine SME SCA as an acclimatisation process and delve into SMEs’ experiences of facing environmental uncertainty while developing and applying SCA. Our findings highlight that organisational attitudes underlie how SMEs perceive environmental uncertainty, tackle organisational vulnerabilities and develop SCA as an acclimatisation process. Our findings also reveal that resource constraints, supply chain relationships, interorganisational power dynamics, and access to information play important roles in developing SCA.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sean Naughton
Dr. Sean Naughton is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for the Business Management suite of programmes at Edge Hill University, UK. Sean began his career in international Project Management before moving further into the Operations Management field. Whilst working as a management trainer, Sean wrote a number of books in the fields of IT, Operations Management and Strategic Management. Sean’s move into HE signalled his change to research-based work, and he presently concentrates on the fields of Agility, Supply Chain Management and Operations Management.
Ismail Golgeci
Dr. Ismail Gölgeci is an Associate Professor at the Aarhus University, Herning, Denmark. He holds a D.Sc. in Economics and Business Administration from University of Vaasa and M.Sc. in Supply Chain Management from Chalmers University of Technology. His research interests include global marketing strategy, global supply chain management, agility, and innovation. His research has been published in Journal of International Business Studies, Human Relations, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, International Business Review, International Small Business Journal, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Production Planning & Control, Journal of Knowledge Management, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, and amongst others.
Ahmad Arslan
Dr. Ahmad Arslan is currently working as an Associate Professor at Department of Marketing, Management and International Business, Oulu Business School, University of Oulu, Finland. Previously, he has worked in academia in other universities in UK and Finland as a Senior Lecturer, Assistant Professor and Researcher. His earlier research has been published in prestigious academic journals like British Journal of Management, International Business Review, International Marketing Review, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Journal of Business Research, Scandinavian Journal of Management, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Journal for East European Management Studies, and Journal of Global Marketing, among others. Moreover, he has also contributed book chapters to several edited handbooks addressing different management related topics. Finally, he is editorial board member of three academic journals (Journal of Knowledge Management, Journal of East-West Business and International Journal of Export Marketing), and reviews papers on regular basis for several other prestigious academic journals.