PhD Studentship: Business and Management: Agri-Food Supply Chain Resilience: A Multi-Level Framework and Cross-Level Interactions

Supply chain resilience (SCRes) refers to the capacity of a supply chain to anticipate, respond to, and recover from disruptions while maintaining continuity of operations and performance. It is increasingly conceptualized as a multi-level construct encompassing individual resilience, organizational resilience, and supply chain-level resilience. However, existing research has largely emphasized the supply chain level, focusing on enabling principles, capabilities, and influencing factors, with limited attention to how resilience is developed through interactions across multiple levels.

Individuals and organizations constitute the foundational elements of supply chains, and resilience emerges from the dynamic interplay among these levels. Individual-level attributes such as skills, adaptability, and decision-making capabilities, when aligned with organizational strategies and structures, contribute to the development of firm-level resilience. In turn, organizational resilience capabilities aggregate and extend across inter-organizational networks, shaping resilience at the supply chain level.

In the context of agri-food systems, where supply chains are particularly vulnerable to environmental, economic, and institutional disruptions, achieving SCRes requires coordinated efforts across all three levels. This highlights the importance of cross-level interactions and collaborative mechanisms that integrate individual competencies, organizational capabilities, and network-level coordination. By adopting a multi-level perspective, agri-food supply chains can not only withstand and recover from disruptions but also enhance adaptive capacity, foster innovation, and strengthen long-term competitiveness.

To be eligible, International Applicant must also hold a SUIPRES Scholarship.

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