Yuan Li, Xincheng Wang, Tianyu Gong, Haifeng Wang

Journal of Operations Management, available online in Articles in Advance

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Crisis such as natural disasters has an impact on a firm’s internal operations and supply chain system. The previous studies focused either on a firm’s internal capability or external social network to counter the traditional crisis. However, such a separate approach may not hold under the unique impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper extends the matching perspective to the COVID-19 pandemic setting to argue that the internal capability and external network perspectives should be integrated to help a firm enhance operational efficiency under the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the Author

Yuan Li, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

Xincheng Wang, School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Tianyu Gong, School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Haifeng Wang, School of Business and Management, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China

Keywords

COVID-19 pandemic, operational efficiency, operational resilience, product diversity, supply chain network

Brief Introduction

This study explores how firms sought to effectively match their internal competence with external resources from the supply chain network to improve operational resilience (OR) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing upon matching theory, this study provides an internal–external matching perspective based on flexibility–stability features of OR to explain the operational mechanisms underlying the different matchings between internal flexibility (i.e., product diversity)/stability (i.e., operational efficiency) and external flexibility (i.e., structural holes)/stability (i.e., network centrality). We find that more heterogeneous matchings between internal (external) flexibility and external (internal) stability have a complementary effect that enhances OR, whereas more homogeneous matchings between internal flexibility (or stability) and external flexibility (or stability) have a substitutive effect that reduces OR. This study provides valuable contributions to research focusing on the supply chain, organizational resilience, and operations management.

Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/joom.1176