Building supply chain resilience through ambidexterity: an information processing perspective

Abstract

This paper makes an initial attempt to develop a theory of supply chain resilience through ambidexterity in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a single-case analysis focusing on Zong-Teng Group, one of the biggest cross-border e-commerce enterprises in China, as our sample. Data were mainly collected from interviews with Zong-Teng managers and public online resources. Through case analysis, this paper identifies that a fit between the information processing requirements of a firm and its information processing capability leads to greater ambidexterity for exploitation and exploration, which in turn improves supply chain resilience (SCR) in the form of agility, redundancy and flexibility. In addition, ambidexterity in terms of morality improves SCR culture. This paper may be the first to adopt information processing theory to examine SCR and consider the role of ambidexterity, noting that crises such as COVID-19 impose an exponential increase in information processing requirements, to which many firms fail to respond effectively.