This workshop will bring together IPSERA academics, educators and practitioners examining three topics on global supply chain risk and how scholars can formulate research agendas investigating how organizations can ensure resilience in their firms and supply chains.

Program

FIRST SESSION (16.00 – 17.00) – Plenary Session

Welcoming Address

George A. Zsidisin and Michael Henke                      

Supply Chain Risk and Resilience in Extraordinary Contexts                         

Christine Harland

Existing SCM risk and resilience frameworks and theories were found to be insufficient to explain the immediacy and global scale of the pandemic, the complexity of healthcare supply systems and the rivalry that occurred in supply markets for critical healthcare supplies. This session briefly examines this insufficiency and reaches out to theories beyond SCM that were used to analyse data collected in the ‘eye of the storm’ of Covid-19. Initial findings from research co-produced with practitioners in the International Research Study of Public Procurement surface the potential value of the Awareness-Motivation-Capability framework and Complex Adaptive Systems theory to ‘front-end’ supply chain risk and resilience research.

Mitigating FX Risk Exposure with Supply Chain Flexibility: A Real Options Analysis

Barbara Gaudenzi and Roberta Pellegrino

One of the consequences of the global political and economic battle are the shocks on foreign exchange (FX) markets, as largely reported by newspapers and financial press. But do supply chain managers perceive and care about the exposure to FX risk? Using a multidisciplinary lens and a multimethod approach, we explore how global firms perceive FX risk and choose among alternative global supply chain strategies for mitigating FX risk. An empirical method with semi-structured interviews was applied to tap the “mental” maps and experiences of supply chain professionals. Then, a quantitative analysis using simulation was employed in order to quantify the supply chain strategies impact on financial performances and to provide insight to the effectiveness of implementing flexibility strategies for mitigating the detrimental financial effects of FX risk.

The Potential of Artificial Intelligence for Supply Chain Risk Management

Federico Caniato

Supply Chain Risk is today more relevant than ever, given the combination of multiple risk sources, high exposure of supply chains worldwide and fast-changing, unpredictable global scenario. Purchasing and Supply Management requires new tools and methods for assessing and managing supply risk, and Artificial Intelligence is a very promising technology for this purpose. Several companies are looking for innovative ideas and providers are developing new solutions, but the field is still in its infancy for a number of reasons:

• The availability, retrieval and treatment of relevant information and data is still challenging, given the variety of sources and formats
• Each company is subject to different risks and has its own peculiarity, thus making standard solutions difficult to apply
• Supply Chain risk is by definition a network problem, i.e. it does not refer to individual firms, but to the whole network, and thus requires complex solutions
• Both existing research and industry solutions still adopt mainly the perspective of a single buying firm, which is a pragmatic approach but fails to grasp the complexity of the issue
• There is a vast amount of research on Artificial Intelligence algorithms, but its application to supply chain risk with a business and management perspective is still limited

The workshop will be an opportunity to share and discuss research opportunities and directions in this domain.

SECOND SESSION (17.00 – 17.45)

Breakout Rooms:                                                                                           

Each of the three presenters will lead breakout sessions on their respective topic. Attendees can choose the breakout room of their interest.

THIRD SESSION (17.45 – 18.30) – Plenary Session

Summary of breakout room discussions:

• Christine Harland and Beverly Wagner
• Barbara Gaudenzi and Roberta Pellegrino
• Federico Caniato and Jukka Hallikas

Concluding thoughts and overall summary:

• George A. Zsidisin and Michael Henke                                              

Welcome!