Managing supply chain risks and vulnerabilities through collaboration: Present and future scope

Risk is everywhere and part of every operation. Therefore, today, mitigating risk is becoming critical part of organizations‘ long term goals. Although significant work has been done in the area of supply chain risk management, the research lacks a unified framework investigating relationship between risks, risk management, collaboration and resulting firm performance. Correspondingly, this paper proposes a framework to examine the relationship between risks, risk management and resulting firm performance. This framework could also investigates how much is the mediating role of collaboration in managing risk and improving firm performance in a supply chain. The framework is underpinned by the key assumptions of the Contingency Theory and Relational View. This study conducts pilot test in the Australian citrus industry which is considered highly vulnerable to various risks due to perishable nature of product and uncertain weather conditions. The findings of this paper will enhance managers understanding of divergent risks and what could be the appropriate risk management measures to deal with such risks. This paper adopts holistic approach, in contrast to past studies on supply chain risk management which focus either supply side or demand side risks. The study contributes to the literature in the field of supply chain risk management as well as agri-food supply chains by investigating the risks faced in supply chains and how they determine the risk management strategies undertaken by firms to maintain or enhance performance. Additionally, this paper provides theoretical contributions by extending contingency theory and relational view from other disciplines into supply chain.