Supply Chain Security: A Dynamic Capabilities Approach

Throughout history, human civilizations have been afflicted by and have responded to large-scale destructive events, impacting both the individuals living within them and the overall social environment. Earlier occurrences such as the repeated pandemics of the bubonic plague, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the Irish potato famine, and the 1777 Lisbon Earthquake each dramatically impacted the way civilizations formed, grew, lived, and interacted. Despite the temporally increasing efforts of humans to prepare for such disasters, and although many of the most prominent and well known disasters affecting human societies occurred long ago, large scale catastrophes have remained to some extent a constant, impacting cultures around the world throughout history and up to the present day (Quinn 2003). This chapter presents a framework documenting business continuity planning capabilities that are thought to engender firm-level benefits. The context is that of supply chain management. Thus, in this chapter, we seek to address the following question: What categories or types of capability development should businesses focus on in seeking to secure their supply chains, and thereby ensure continuity of operations?In order to answer this question, we first introduce the concepts surrounding the focal context – those of supply chain security and supply chain security management, and the development of firm-level capabilities. Then, a conceptual framework is introduced that integrates the technology, processes, and human resources needed to develop supply chain security management capabilities, and thereby support business continuity planning in future business operations.