In recent years, global supply chains have experienced unprecedented disrup-tions, including the global pandemic (COVID-19), geopolitical escalations etc... These shocks have exposed vulnerabilities in the structure of supply chains, em-phasising the importance of having efficient and capable systems which maintain performance during periods of prolonged uncertainty. This thesis investigates the interrelationships between four key dimensions of supply chain management: agility, resilience, sustainability and viability and aims to clarify the relationships between these dimensions, identifying potential synergies and structural trade-offs, and develops an integrative conceptual framework, contributing to the ongoing research on supply chain theory. Methodologically, the research combines a systematic literature review with an in-depth qualitative case study of Amazon. The literature review synthesises the-oretical developments across the studied four dimensions and impactful digital supply chain technologies across the last five years. The empirical analysis builds on secondary corporate data and semi-structured interviews conducted within Amazon’s European teams to examine digitally enabled coordination mecha-nisms in practice and supply chain trade-offs measures. The findings do demonstrate that agility, resilience and sustainability are inter-dependent capabilities that focus across different time horizons: agility supports short-term responsiveness; resilience ensures continuity of performance under disruption, while sustainability embeds long-term environmental, social and economic constraints into decision-making processes. Supply chain viability emerges as the overarching adaptive system condition resulting from their con-tinuous interaction over time. While digitalisation does not eliminate structural trade-offs, it does reshape how they are managed by strengthening sensing capa-bilities, reducing coordination latency, enhancing analytical precision and ena-bling scalable governance mechanisms. A conceptual framework has been developed and positions supply chain viability as an emergent outcome of the continuous interaction between the other three supply chain capabilities, representing the long-term inherent capability of a sys-tems to adapt and transform under persistent instability.
Negli ultimi anni, le supply chains globali hanno subito interruzioni senza prece-denti, tra cui la pandemia globale (COVID-19), escalation geopolitiche, eventi le-gati al clima e cambiamenti tecnologici. Questi shock hanno messo in luce le fra-gilità nella struttura delle catene di approvvigionamento, sottolineando l’importanza di disporre di sistemi efficienti e capaci che mantengano le presta-zioni durante periodi di prolungata incertezza. Questa tesi esplora le relazioni tra quattro dimensioni chiave della gestione della catena di approvvigionamento: agilità, resilienza, sostenibilità e fattibilità, miran-do a chiarire i rapporti tra queste dimensioni, identificando possibili sinergie e compromessi strutturali. Sviluppa uno schema concettuale, contribuendo alla ri-cerca in corso su teorie legate alla supply chain. Dal punto di vista metodologico, la ricerca combina una sistematica analisi della letteratura con caso studio qualitativo su Amazon. L’analisi della letteratura sinte-tizza gli sviluppi teorici relativi alle quattro dimensioni studiate e alle tecnologie digitali di grande impatto sulla catena di approvvigionamento studiati negli ul-timi cinque anni. I risultati dimostrano che agilità, resilienza e sostenibilità sono capacità interdi-pendenti che si concentrano su diversi orizzonti temporali: l’agilità supporta la reattività a breve termine; la resilienza garantisce la continuità delle prestazioni in caso di perturbazioni, mentre la sostenibilità integra i vincoli ambientali, socia-li ed economici a lungo termine nei processi decisionali e operativi. La “fattibili-tà” della catena di approvvigionamento emerge come la condizione generale di un sistema risultante dalla continua interazione nel tempo delle altre tre dimen-sioni. Sebbene la digitalizzazione non elimini i compromessi strutturali identifica-ti, essa ne ridefinisce la gestione rafforzando le capacità di rilevamento, riducen-do la latenza di coordinamento, migliorando la precisione analitica e consenten-do meccanismi di governance scalabili. È stato sviluppato uno schema concettuale che posiziona la fattibilità di una cate-na di approvvigionamento come risultato emergente dell’interazione continua tra le altre tre dimensioni, rappresentando la capacità intrinseca a lungo termine di un sistema di adattarsi e trasformarsi in condizioni di instabilità.
Exploring the interrelationships of supply chain viability, resilience, sustainability, and agility: the role of digitalization in enhancing performance
COLOMBO, DANIELE
2024/2025
Abstract
In recent years, global supply chains have experienced unprecedented disrup-tions, including the global pandemic (COVID-19), geopolitical escalations etc... These shocks have exposed vulnerabilities in the structure of supply chains, em-phasising the importance of having efficient and capable systems which maintain performance during periods of prolonged uncertainty. This thesis investigates the interrelationships between four key dimensions of supply chain management: agility, resilience, sustainability and viability and aims to clarify the relationships between these dimensions, identifying potential synergies and structural trade-offs, and develops an integrative conceptual framework, contributing to the ongoing research on supply chain theory. Methodologically, the research combines a systematic literature review with an in-depth qualitative case study of Amazon. The literature review synthesises the-oretical developments across the studied four dimensions and impactful digital supply chain technologies across the last five years. The empirical analysis builds on secondary corporate data and semi-structured interviews conducted within Amazon’s European teams to examine digitally enabled coordination mecha-nisms in practice and supply chain trade-offs measures. The findings do demonstrate that agility, resilience and sustainability are inter-dependent capabilities that focus across different time horizons: agility supports short-term responsiveness; resilience ensures continuity of performance under disruption, while sustainability embeds long-term environmental, social and economic constraints into decision-making processes. Supply chain viability emerges as the overarching adaptive system condition resulting from their con-tinuous interaction over time. While digitalisation does not eliminate structural trade-offs, it does reshape how they are managed by strengthening sensing capa-bilities, reducing coordination latency, enhancing analytical precision and ena-bling scalable governance mechanisms. A conceptual framework has been developed and positions supply chain viability as an emergent outcome of the continuous interaction between the other three supply chain capabilities, representing the long-term inherent capability of a sys-tems to adapt and transform under persistent instability.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/251421