Supply chain disruption mitigation strategies to advance future research agenda: A systematic literature review

Growing complexity and vulnerability of global supply chains have led to significant challenges in supply chain functionality. Organizations face shortages, out-of-stock situations, and longer lead times for components, which impacts resilience and recovery processes. Numerous organizations have adopted diverse strategies to mitigate the effects of supply chain disruptions. Despite these efforts, current intricate supply chain complexities have rendered these strategies relatively ineffective in minimizing the impact of disruptions. This predicament can be attributed to a dearth of comprehensive knowledge and a skewed research emphasis, which collectively hindered development and application of robust effective strategies. There is scarcity of both theoretical comprehension and practical experience with specific mitigation strategies. Therefore, this study aims to bridge the critical research gaps by comprehensively examining 133 relevant studies on Supply Chain Disruption Mitigation Strategies (SCDMS). Through bibliometric and network analyses, the study performed quantitative analysis to shed light on evolving intellectual discourse and revealed the exponential rise in publications on SCDMS, which reflect the heightened relevance within contemporary, volatile and uncertain market landscape. This study provides a comprehensive foundation for understanding diverse mitigation strategies identified through systematic literature review by delving into theories, characteristics, methodology, and contextual analysis of SCDMS and propose a conceptual framework for organizations and researchers. The study has also analyzed how organizations can apply diverse mitigation strategies to reduce the impact and enhance recovery and resilience. Holistic and comprehensive review suggest that future research on SCDMS should focus on interactions of components such as unexplored mitigation strategies, implementation process, organisational resilience and supply chain disruptions. The potential challenges and benefits of implementing various mitigation strategies have also been provided along with future research directions. The analysis has been further enriched by inclusion of existing practices to enable the strategists to glean practical insights from successful cases.