Companies rely on supply chain robustness and resilience to maintain their competitive advantage despite disruptions. The study examines how organizations can orchestrate employee empowerment, digital transformation technologies, and trust to develop supply chain robustness and resilience capabilities.
A cross-sectional survey design is used to test the study hypotheses. Data are collected from international and domestic organizations operating in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg using an online survey, and analyzed using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).
Digital transformation tools contribute to supply chain robustness and resilience in different ways. Digital transformation tools and employee empowerment contribute to the development of a data-driven culture and thereby to supply chain robustness. Digital transformation tools also contribute to increased supply chain visibility. This in turns strengthens trust relationships with suppliers, contributing to supply chain resilience.
The study extends dynamic capability theory and organization information processing theory by demonstrating how investments in assets such as digital technologies can contribute to increasing an organization’s information processing capability directly, by building vertical information systems, but also indirectly, by contributing to the development of lateral relations.
