Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: 'Global Supply Chain Risk Management'

摘要

The use of risk management practices and techniques to deal with problems associated with supply chains, such as lack of visibility in supplier reliability, cost and product quality, and uncertainties associated with rapid changes in technology and product life cycle, frequent natural and human disasters, and unstable market and exchange rates, etc., has got widespread attention in industry. Past research has well documented the impact of supply chain disruptions on operational performance that has caused serious damage to profitability of firms leading to loss of shareholder wealth and reputation. The financial crisis in the last few years has provided firms with an opportunity to draw a balance between controlling costs to achieve supply chain efficiency versus managing risk to address supply and demand disruptions. At the same time, the unstoppable globalization of economies continues to expand the spectrum of risks that industry supply chains have to bear, in particular, the type of risks associated with operating in emerging markets and in the global arena filled with governmental and economic players with different regulatory and tax regimes, disparate business cultures, varying level of economic development, and different sense of social and environmental responsibilities, etc. As such, integrative risk management approaches that capture the interaction of multiple risks and risks along the entire supply chain are becoming much more relevant.