The role of collaboration for resilience of the sugarcane-energy supply chain

Abstract

The drought in the sugarcane-energy supply chain of São Paulo occurred between 2014 and 2015 was the phenomenon observed in this case study whose starting point was the following question: how can collaboration bring on resilience in supply chains experiencing a disaster? Deductive qualitative approach has empirically contributed to the knowledge of possible disruptions focused on the agribusiness. For those purposes, aspects involving vertical (suppliers, focal company and buyers) and horizontal (NGOs, government, research centers, focal company and their competitors) collaboration was analyzed among the links of the chain (triad: farmers, processers and buyers). Vertical collaboration between buyers and focal company, if compared to that of focal company and suppliers (the weakest link) is more significant. The findings in this study, however, should be considered solely within the context of the supply chain analyzed once new researches in different cultures of the agribusiness, regions and types of disasters have yet to be done.