Capabilities for enhancing supply chain resilience and responsiveness in the COVID-19 pandemic: exploring the role of improvisation, anticipation, and data analytics capabilities

Purpose: This study aims to identify critical capabilities to address unforeseen and novel disruptions, such as those instigated by COVID-19, and explore their role as essential enablers of supply chain resilience and responsiveness, leading to improved performance. Design/methodology/approach: The structural equation modeling technique was employed for analyzing the proposed associations using survey data from 206 manufacturers operating during the COVID-19 pandemic in a developing country, Pakistan. 

Findings: Key findings show how improvisation and anticipation act distinctly yet jointly to facilitate supply chain resilience and responsiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, data analytics capability positively affects anticipation and improvisation, which mediate the effect of data analytics on supply chain resilience and responsiveness. 

Research limitations/implications: The findings contribute to the theoretical and empirical understanding of the existing literature, suggesting that a combination of improvisation, anticipation and data analytics capabilities is highly imperative for enhancing supply chain resilience and responsiveness in novel and unexpected disruptions.

Originality/value: This is the first study to examine the impact of data analytics on improvisation and anticipation and the latter as complementary capabilities to enhance supply chain resilience and responsiveness. The empirical investigation explores the interplay among data analytics, improvisation, and anticipation capabilities for enhancing supply chain resilience, responsiveness, and performance during the unforeseen and novel disruptions, such as brought to bear by the COVID-19 pandemic.