Managing Supply Chain Risk - A Supply-Side Perspective

In the past, most research on supply chain man- agement focused on initiatives that made supply chains leaner, faster and more flexible, resulting in highly efficient but more vulnerable operations. Our study draws upon the existing literature to develop a model for upstream supply chain risk management. We collected survey data from 162 companies among several manufacturing industries. In a path analytic model, we link three steps of the supply chain risk management process - risk identification, risk assess- ment and risk mitigation - with upstream supply chain risk performance. We also include the effect of a continuous risk management improvement process on the risk management activities in order to adapt to the requirements of a changing environment. The data provides robust support to all our hypotheses. The study contributes to the literature by elabo- rating some theory aspects in more detail and empirically confirming the contribution of upstream supply chain risk management activities to the actual supply chain risk per- formance. Managers benefit from the insights how risk iden- tification, risk assessment and risk mitigation activities in- fluence risk performance and which role a continuous im- provement process can play.