Did COVID-19 change the rules of the game for supply chain resilience? The effects of learning culture and supplier trust

Official URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJPDLM-05-2021-0204

Purpose: This paper aims to clarify the effects of learning culture and trust on supply chain resilience (SCR) and to investigate their role specifically during COVID-19 pandemic to aid decision-makers. For this, a conceptual model proposing relations between variables was developed. The focal point of this research is to investigate the relationship between organizational learning culture (OLC) and SCR, and the mediating effect of supplier trust (ST) in the relationship before and during a pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: This study relies on a unique dataset collected through two separate cross-sectional surveys corresponding to pre- and during-pandemic times that were conducted at the same time. The questionnaire was collected from 245 medium- to senior-level managers, to ensure a thorough understanding about the company’s inner workings and supply chain (SC). To test the proposed research model, the authors processed their data and model using lavaan package in R. Findings: The findings show that OLC and ST have positive and significant effects on SCR. Furthermore, learning culture also triggers ST. Thus, it is ST that explained, as a mediator, the positive effects of OLC on SCR. All these findings are similar for both before and after the pandemic. A critical finding is about the effect of size (small vs. large) and ownership (local vs. multinational). The analysis suggests that during pandemic multinational companies and larger organizations exhibit higher SCR than their counterparts. Research limitations/implications: First, responses to the questionnaire were collected from only one country. Cross-cultural comparisons can be made by collecting data from different countries in future research. Second, the data were obtained from companies operating in different sectors, with a majority in manufacturing. It is possible to obtain more specific findings by analyzing responses from a specific industry. Third, results of this study reflect responses of only SC and manufacturing managers, but other departments such as marketing or finance can also complement the findings. Finally, several other organizational variables may be factored in as moderators to enrich the conceptual model. Practical implications: The authors believe that findings of this research will guide shareholders and managers to develop effective strategies in order to prevent SC disruptions during similar risk/shock scenarios. Originality/value: Similar to earlier research, this study considers the importance of ST on SCR. But this study differs in analyzing the effects of OLC on SCR directly and in taking the mediating effect of ST into account. The authors test the strengths of these relationships individually before and during COVID-19 pandemic. Under pandemic conditions, the authors present empirical evidence on the effects of organizational learning and ST on SCR. In contrast to previous research on SCR, this study connotes the importance of an organization’s internal dynamic capabilities in developing resilience.