Abstracts Economics

Identification and analysis of operational and behavioural risks emerging and propagating in supply chains: a multi-method approach

by Mehrdokht Pournader

The study of supply chain risks can be conducted from various perspectives, including types of risks and supply chain structure. First, from the aspect of the types of supply chain risks, the thesis investigates operational and behavioural risks both separately and in tandem. For operational risks, the proposed research model tackles a critical research problem in supply chain risk literature, which revolves around making a link between supply chain resilience and risk assessment. Outsourcing malfunctions and risks associated with them are analysed as a specific type of operational risk that is prevalent in modern supply chains. For behavioural risks, the risk attitudes of decision makers and their impact on inventory decisions are investigated. Another study, conducted at the intersection of behavioural and operational risks, shows the importance of considering both types of the aforementioned risks while assessing vulnerabilities in supply chains. Second, the research adopts the viewpoint of supply chain structure, investigating supply chains and their vulnerability to risks in forms of service supply networks, in particular in service triads. Most of the studies adopt a multi-method approach, proposing analytical models to assess supply chain vulnerability to risks and testing these models using surveys, interviews, archival data or behavioural experiments.