Supply Chain Risk Management During the Covid-19 Pandemic From the perspective of global logistic providers

Abstract

The fundamental role that global logistics providers serve does not only concern their active role in transporting goods from one location to another and the participation within global supply chains does not only allow for great organizational opportunities, but high risks are involved. Therefore, supply chain risk management is a crucial factor for organizations to manage their activities within these global networks, especially during the ongoing global disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic. This study thereby investigates how global logistics providers have managed the risks of an ongoing global disruptive event. To gain a deeper understanding of the perspective of global logistics providers, a multiple case study was conducted with the participation of eleven case companies present in the Gothenburg region with active participation in global supply chains. Interviews were conducted with a semi-structured format and the multiple case study was carried out in an extensive approach to seek common patterns and contrasting findings among the cases, to further elaborate with existing theory to seek for analytical generalizability. The main findings of this study are that risk management permeates the daily work of individuals within the case companies regardless of their assigned organizational role and that the flexibility approach is the best risk management strategy for global logistics providers to minimize impacts caused by a disruption. This study contributes to existing literature by taking the perspective of global logistics providers within global supply chains, and by studying risk management during a global disruption.