Research On The Formation Mechanism And Performance Impact Of Supply Chain Viability:Capability-Relationship Matching Perspective

In recent years,the world economy has increasingly taken on the characteristics of VUCA with the effects of world tensions,the Russia-Ukraine conflict,the COVID-19 pandemic,and climate change and natural disasters.Especially the emergence of events like the Black Swan has caused a serious impact on the global supply chain and seriously threatened the survival of the supply chain.The impact of such crisis events has gone far beyond the scope of supply chain resilience,because in the case of a complete disruption of the supply chain,the key to solving the problem may no longer be just restoring the supply chain to its original state,but the need to adapt to new environmental conditions to ensure that the supply chain survival is maintained under the conditions where supply chain uncertainty or turbulence becomes the new normal.This study expands the study of supply chain resilience based on the perspective of survival to explore the factors influencing supply chain viability and its performance impact.Current supply chain related research is generally explained from two independent perspectives,one is the internal capability perspective and the other is the external relationship perspective.And in the past,these two perspectives are rarely dialogued and there is a lack of research on the multifaceted relationship between internal capabilities and external relationships and supply chain viability from a complexity perspective.The realization of supply chain viability is not only an independent behavior of individual firms,but also a network phenomenon arising from the connection and dependence with supply chain members.Given the strategic complementarity between internal capabilities and external relationships,this study takes matching theory as the basic research framework and establishes the realization path of the “matching internal capabilities and external relationships-supply chain viability-sustainability performance”.Among them,it is summarized into two main parts: the first part is the capability relationship matching process,i.e.how the internal dynamic capabilities and external relationships are matched to produce high supply chain viability.The second part is the value creation process,i.e.,the performance impact of supply chain viability,which reveals the relationship between supply chain viability and sustainability performance.This study uses fs QCA(fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis)software to analyze data from 270 companies based on group theory,and the results validate the proposed realization path.In the first part of the capability relationship matching process,the need for matching between internal supply chain dynamic capabilities and external relationship dimensions to generate high supply chain viability(agility,resilience and sustainability)was verified.The results show that there is no single necessary condition for achieving high supply chain viability.And through the process of configuration theorizing,the paths to achieve high supply chain viability are summarized into three types: capability-driven,relationship-driven,and capabilityrelationship matching,presenting multiple paths and complex mechanisms to achieve high supply chain viability.In addition,the application of matching theory is extended from the perspective of matching capability and relationship,and the applicability of matching theory in matching between capability and relationship is verified;in the second part of value creation process,the relationship between supply chain viability and sustainability performance is verified.And it is found that supply chain viability is a key factor to achieve high sustainability performance under high macro uncertainty in supply chain.Under a relatively stable supply chain environment,firms can develop different capabilities to achieve high sustainability performance.A complex causal asymmetric relationship between achieving high and non-high sustainability performance is also found.This study has the following innovations:(1)explored the influencing factors and matching mechanisms of supply chain viability;(2)proposed multiple paths and complex mechanisms to achieve high supply chain viability;(3)verified the mechanism of the role of supply chain viability on sustainability performance;(4)extended the research of QCA approach in the field of supply chain management.In summary,the findings of this study provide multiple different pathway configurations for improving supply chain viability in firms with VUCA characteristic environments and validate the consequences of supply chain viability for sustainability performance.This study provides multiple path options for improving supply chain viability,and provides some theoretical and practical guidance for business operations during supply chain disruptions and supply chain crises.