| Abstract [eng] |
The recent disruptions, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, the COVID-19 pandemic, and geopolitical instability, have exposed the fragility of global supply chains. These disruptions have threatened the stability of supply chain operations, highlighting the need for comprehensive supply chain resilience management and development and how it is crucial to respond effectively to challenges and adapt to uncertainties more efficiently to avoid nonvulnerability of supply chains. However, during the examination of studies on the management of supply chain resilience and its development, researchers have confirmed that there is a lack of a unified approach. Consequently, the thesis aims to identify the theoretical interpretations that form the basis of the concept of a resilient supply chain, explore the methodologies that can be applied to manage and strengthen resilience in supply chains, and propose a model that identifies the strategies to enhance resilience in the supply chains. Also, the novelty was based on attempt to validate the benefits of resilience to reduce the impact of crises on supply chains by presenting the latest scientific literature based on the developed methodological approach for the management and development of resilient supply chains. Chapter one provided readers with a foundational understanding of organizational resilience and supply chain resilience. The chapter also highlighted the gaps in existing research and the need for comprehensive and well-established models. Several researchers, including (Adobor & McMullen, 2018; Christopher & Peck, 2004; Piprani et al., 2020), have pointed out this need. Also, one of the main missing points with existing models is that they lack practical understanding. Furthermore, some authors provide vague definitions that are open to different interpretations. Chapter one ended by proposing a new model a new model which suggested strategies to enhance resilience in supply chains. These strategies were gathered from recent literature, and a new category of strategies was introduced. However, to validate this model, it needed to be compared to the real situation in companies. Therefore, three different industries in three different countries (Lithuania, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia) were chosen for qualitative research using semi-structured interviews. The purpose of these interviews was to explore how experts with a high level of resilience understand supply chain resilience and discover their practices to enhance it. The qualitative results helped build a new understanding of the actual situation regarding supply chain resilience development and the strategies employed before, during, and after disruptions. New practices were discovered during the interviews, such as cross-training, restoration of relationships, and transparency. The positioning of when to use each strategy was modified depending on the interviewee's responses, and the new validated framework was confirmed. It is still recommended for future researchers to conduct quantitative research in order to further enhance the existing qualitative findings. and conducting more extensive research that encompasses a larger sample size, providing more comprehensive results and insights. |
