Being Resilient in Challenging Times in Food Supply Chains †

Abstract

Resilience has been described in many ways and in this paper is considered as the ability of an organization or wider food supply chain to not just ‘bounce back’ to a steady state, but to ‘bounce forward’ or ‘bounce without breaking’ to a new sense of becoming that is continually reshaped by the evolving environment. This keynote-positioned conceptual paper reflects aspects of resilience that will be considered during the conference. Resilience as a concept can be framed in the context of food supply chains in terms of the triad of natural systems resilience, organizational resilience, and personal resilience. The main focus of this paper is on organizational resilience and developing the capacity to buffer shocks and to adapt to changing supply chain drivers and demands as the world in which the organization operates becomes more uncertain. One infrastructural approach to improving adaptive capacity, as a result resilience, is the integration of digital technologies and smart systems into food supply chains, what is often described as Industry 4.0.