A managerial operationalization of antifragility and its consequences in supply chains

Abstract

Robust systems can recover after a shock to a previous steady state. Thus, to make organizations robust is a frequent goal of system dynamics projects. However, in recent years, the adequacy of robustness as a design criterion for systems (and, thus, of the models that represent them) has been challenged based on the ideas of antifragility, that is, the ability of a system to recover after a shock and to achieve a higher performance level than before the shock. The purpose of this article is to propose how antifragility can be interpreted and operationalized in managerial settings and to explore what consequences result from its existence for supply chain behaviour and performance. System dynamics modelling and simulation are employed, and the insights of the analyses are used for a critique of the antifragility concept. It is demonstrated that the antifragility concept can lose its unambiguous advantage in highly dynamic situations.