Dealing with supply chain risks

Purpose – The effects of supply chain risk management (SCRM) on the performance of a supply chain remain unexplored. It is assumed that SCRM helps supply chains to cope with vulnerabilities both proactively by supporting robustness and reactively by supporting agility. Both dimensions are assumed to have an influence on the supply chain's customer value and on business performance. The aim of this research is to provide clarity by empirically testing these hypotheses and scrutinizing the findings by the means of case studies.Design/methodology/approach – The research is empirical. Survey data were collected from 270 manufacturing companies for hypotheses testing via structural equation modeling. Additionally, qualitative data were collected to explore the nature of non‐hypothesized findings.Findings – It is found that SCRM is important for agility and robustness of a company. Both agility and robustness show to be important in improving performance. While agility has a strong positive effect only on the s...