Improving resilience of agrifood supply chains: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Purpose – The impacts of localised disruptions within supply chains (SCs) may propagate throughout the entire SC due to the interconnectedness of SC participants. However, there are limited reviews investigating agrifood supply chain resilience (SCRe) from a whole SC perspective. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how SC design characteristics, SC participants, institutions and their interrelationships contribute to improving agrifood SCRe. Design/methodology/approach – A systematic literature review (SLR) of 259 articles was conducted to analyse how SC design characteristics, and practices of SC participants and institutions could improve agrifood SCRe. Findings – A conceptual framework for improving agrifood SCRe and five related propositions are proposed. Practices that institutions and SC participants can implement individually and collaboratively to improve SC-level resilience are suggested. Recommendations for future research are proposed based on the identified research gaps. Originality/value – There are limited industry-specific literature reviews focusing on improving SC-level resilience, especially in agrifood SCs. There is an absence of studies on how agrifood SCRe could be improved holistically. The findings contribute to research advancement of SCRe, proposing a holistic conceptual framework for improving agrifood SCRe.