Supply Risk Management: an empirical perspective on the Italian manufacturing sector

Frame of the research: This paper presents the preliminary results of a large-scale research conducted through a survey on 147 Italian manufacturing companies, which focuses on supply risk.

Purpose of the paper: Our analysis investigates two main research questions: first, to measure out how likely it is that a supply chain gets disrupted by the sudden and unforeseen interruption of supplies; second, which are the main cause(s)that can lead to such an occurrence

Methodology: We analyzed 157 such cases reported by the 147 firms in our sample.

Findings: Our preliminary results highlight that the occurrence of supply disruptions is rather frequent, and that suppliers’ financial default is by and large the most frequent single cause, being at the root of almost half of such cases. By breaking down these results by firm size and industrial sector, we uncover that both these exogenous factors have a deep influence on each of the studied effects, the occurrence frequency, and the causation.

Research limits: This study -as any other empirical research- has limitations in both the number and type of firms scrutinized and is constrained to a specific time period; however, it provides clear outcomes and robust statistical analysis.

Practical implications: Moreover, in doing so it presents managers with some critical considerations about their current curse of action regarding supply chain risk management, and how it could become more efficient and effective.

Originality of the paper: This paper fills a gap in the extant literature by supplying robust quantitative data regarding the frequency of supply interruptions and their causation