Building Organizational Resilience: The Role of Supply Chain Board Members and in Supply Network Positions

Many previous studies have examined factors that contribute to organizational resilience; however, the impact of supply chain members has received scant attention. This study aims to investigate whether placing supply chain associates on boards influences organizational resilience. Drawing on the dynamic capabilities perspective, we integrate strategic and operational aspects of organizational resilience and introduce the idea of placing supply chain members on corporate boards as a strategic approach for firms to create and maintain resilience. An analysis of the responses of 498 firms from the SP1500 list in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic shows that firms with supply chain directors in their boardrooms had a higher capacity to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, as indicated by shorter recovery times and less loss severity than firms without supply chain members on their boards. Furthermore, we found that the benefit of less loss severity is strengthened under high closeness centrality and betweenness centrality, whereas the benefit of shorter recovery time is strengthened under high degree centrality and low betweenness centrality. We add to the organizational resilience literature by theorizing that having supply chain members on boards is a viable approach to creating and maintaining resilience.