IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/sjobre/v74y2022i4d10.1007_s41471-022-00149-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

No Resilience Without Partners: A Case Study on German Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Context of COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Trunk

    (Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg)

  • Hendrik Birkel

    (Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg)

Abstract

Much research has been conducted on the effects of COVID-19 on company and supply chain resilience. However, few contributions have focused on small and medium-sized enterprises. These companies are claimed to be the drivers of economic growth but often lack access to resources and alternatives when interruptions occur, making them a bottleneck for supply chains. Using a multiple case study approach, this paper links resilience theory to the design of the relationships between eight German small and medium-sized enterprises and their suppliers and customers. It analyzes the way in which these companies combine contractual and relational investments across their supply chain flows of product, finance, and information in order to improve resilience. Company representatives were interviewed on three occasions between June 2018 and December 2020, that is, before COVID-19 and during the lockdowns. The results of the case study explain why and how companies of this type have been able to anticipate and manage the crisis. The interviews revealed that those companies that made the largest investments in the relational aspects of their partnerships while safeguarding product and financial flows through contracts performed best. In principle, contractual investments are higher in partnerships with suppliers. However, the precise combination of contractual and relational investments depends on the business model, the business philosophy of the CEO, and the allocation of power within the supply chain. These findings indicate that, when collaborating with small businesses, supply chain partners should focus on building relationships in order to create resilience in the supply chain.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Trunk & Hendrik Birkel, 2022. "No Resilience Without Partners: A Case Study on German Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Context of COVID-19," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 74(4), pages 537-574, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sjobre:v:74:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s41471-022-00149-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s41471-022-00149-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41471-022-00149-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41471-022-00149-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Williamson, Oliver E, 1979. "Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractural Relations," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(2), pages 233-261, October.
    2. Heider, Anne & Gerken, Maike & van Dinther, Nicolas & Hülsbeck, Marcel, 2021. "Business model innovation through dynamic capabilities in small and medium enterprises – Evidence from the German Mittelstand," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 635-645.
    3. Rameshwar Dubey & Angappa Gunasekaran & David J. Bryde & Yogesh K. Dwivedi & Thanos Papadopoulos, 2020. "Blockchain technology for enhancing swift-trust, collaboration and resilience within a humanitarian supply chain setting," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(11), pages 3381-3398, June.
    4. Jafar Rezaei & Roland Ortt & Paul Trott, 2015. "How SMEs can benefit from supply chain partnerships," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(5), pages 1527-1543, March.
    5. Ivanov, Dmitry & Dolgui, Alexandre, 2021. "OR-methods for coping with the ripple effect in supply chains during COVID-19 pandemic: Managerial insights and research implications," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    6. Klyver, Kim & Nielsen, Suna Løwe, 2021. "Which crisis strategies are (expectedly) effective among SMEs during COVID-19?," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).
    7. McGuinness, Gerard & Hogan, Teresa & Powell, Ronan, 2018. "European trade credit use and SME survival," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 81-103.
    8. Williamson, Oliver E., 2007. "Transaction Cost Economics: An Introduction," Economics Discussion Papers 2007-3, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    9. El Baz, Jamal & Ruel, Salomée, 2021. "Can supply chain risk management practices mitigate the disruption impacts on supply chains’ resilience and robustness? Evidence from an empirical survey in a COVID-19 outbreak era," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    10. Wuttke, David A. & Blome, Constantin & Henke, Michael, 2013. "Focusing the financial flow of supply chains: An empirical investigation of financial supply chain management," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 773-789.
    11. Zhou, Honggeng & Li, Ling, 2020. "The impact of supply chain practices and quality management on firm performance: Evidence from China's small and medium manufacturing enterprises," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    12. Catherine Welch & Eriikka Paavilainen-Mäntymäki & Rebecca Piekkari & Emmanuella Plakoyiannaki, 2022. "Reconciling theory and context: How the case study can set a new agenda for international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(1), pages 4-26, February.
    13. Thorgren, Sara & Williams, Trenton Alma, 2020. "Staying alive during an unfolding crisis: How SMEs ward off impending disaster," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    14. Pal, Rudrajeet & Torstensson, Håkan & Mattila, Heikki, 2014. "Antecedents of organizational resilience in economic crises—an empirical study of Swedish textile and clothing SMEs," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(PB), pages 410-428.
    15. Teresa Hooks & Áine Macken-Walsh & Olive McCarthy & Carol Power, 2017. "The Impact of a Values-Based Supply Chain (VBSC) on Farm-Level Viability, Sustainability and Resilience: Case Study Evidence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-19, February.
    16. Linh Nguyen Khanh Duong & Josephine Chong, 2020. "Supply chain collaboration in the presence of disruptions: a literature review," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(11), pages 3488-3507, June.
    17. Ma, Hoi-Lam & Wang, Z.X. & Chan, Felix T.S., 2020. "How important are supply chain collaborative factors in supply chain finance? A view of financial service providers in China," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 341-346.
    18. Xu, Xinhan & Chen, Xiangfeng & Jia, Fu & Brown, Steve & Gong, Yu & Xu, Yifan, 2018. "Supply chain finance: A systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 160-173.
    19. Yu Han & Woon Kian Chong & Dong Li, 2020. "A systematic literature review of the capabilities and performance metrics of supply chain resilience," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(15), pages 4541-4566, July.
    20. Catherine Welch & Rebecca Piekkari & Emmanuella Plakoyiannaki & Eriikka Paavilainen-Mantymaki, 2011. "Theorising from case studies: Towards a pluralist future for international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 42(5), pages 740-762, June.
    21. Zhao, Lima & Huchzermeier, Arnd, 2015. "Operations–finance interface models: A literature review and framework," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 244(3), pages 905-917.
    22. Liu, Zugang & Cruz, Jose M., 2012. "Supply chain networks with corporate financial risks and trade credits under economic uncertainty," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 55-67.
    23. Farahani, Reza Zanjirani & Lotfi, M.M. & Baghaian, Atefe & Ruiz, Rubén & Rezapour, Shabnam, 2020. "Mass casualty management in disaster scene: A systematic review of OR&MS research in humanitarian operations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 287(3), pages 787-819.
    24. George Baryannis & Sahar Validi & Samir Dani & Grigoris Antoniou, 2019. "Supply chain risk management and artificial intelligence: state of the art and future research directions," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(7), pages 2179-2202, April.
    25. Wuttke, David A. & Blome, Constantin & Sebastian Heese, H. & Protopappa-Sieke, Margarita, 2016. "Supply chain finance: Optimal introduction and adoption decisions," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 72-81.
    26. Alok Baveja & Ajai Kapoor & Benjamin Melamed, 2020. "Stopping Covid-19: A pandemic-management service value chain approach," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 289(2), pages 173-184, June.
    27. Andreas Wieland, 2021. "Dancing the Supply Chain: Toward Transformative Supply Chain Management," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 57(1), pages 58-73, January.
    28. Agostini, Lara & Filippini, Roberto & Nosella, Anna, 2015. "Management and performance of strategic multipartner SME networks," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 376-390.
    29. WUTTKE, David A & BLOME, Constantin & HENKE, Michael, 2013. "Focusing the financial flow of supply chains: an empirical investigation of financial supply chain management," LIDAM Reprints CORE 2601, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    30. Lilien, Gary L., 2016. "The B2B Knowledge Gap," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 543-556.
    31. Blome, Constantin & Schoenherr, Tobias, 2011. "Supply chain risk management in financial crises--A multiple case-study approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(1), pages 43-57, November.
    32. Boone, Tonya & Ganeshan, Ram & Jain, Aditya & Sanders, Nada R., 2019. "Forecasting sales in the supply chain: Consumer analytics in the big data era," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 170-180.
    33. Jens Grunert & Lars Norden, 2012. "Bargaining power and information in SME lending," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 401-417, September.
    34. Pan, Ailing & Xu, Lei & Li, Bin & Ling, Runze, 2020. "The impact of supply chain finance on firm cash holdings: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    35. Stephanie Duchek, 2020. "Organizational resilience: a capability-based conceptualization," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 13(1), pages 215-246, April.
    36. Cruz, Jose M. & Liu, Zugang, 2011. "Modeling and analysis of the multiperiod effects of social relationship on supply chain networks," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 214(1), pages 39-52, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tine Buyl & Thomas Gehrig & Jonas Schreyögg & Andreas Wieland, 2022. "Resilience: A Critical Appraisal of the State of Research for Business and Society," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 74(4), pages 453-463, December.
    2. Pfaff, Yuko Melanie & Birkel, Hendrik & Hartmann, Evi, 2023. "Supply chain governance in the context of industry 4.0: Investigating implications of real-life implementations from a multi-tier perspective," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ratri Parida & Manoj Kumar Dash & Anil Kumar & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas & Sunil Luthra & Eyob Mulat‐weldemeskel, 2022. "Evolution of supply chain finance: A comprehensive review and proposed research directions with network clustering analysis," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 1343-1369, October.
    2. Dekkers, Rob & de Boer, Ronald & Gelsomino, Luca Mattia & de Goeij, Christiaan & Steeman, Michiel & Zhou, Qijun & Sinclair, Scott & Souter, Victoria, 2020. "Evaluating theoretical conceptualisations for supply chain and finance integration: A Scottish focus group," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    3. Yuting Li & Tong Chen & Baogui Xin, 2016. "Optimal Financing Decisions of Two Cash-Constrained Supply Chains with Complementary Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-17, April.
    4. Beatrice Marchi & Simone Zanoni & Mohamad Y. Jaber, 2020. "Improving Supply Chain Profit through Reverse Factoring: A New Multi-Suppliers Single-Vendor Joint Economic Lot Size Model," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-16, April.
    5. Zhang, Wen & Yan, Shaoshan & Li, Jian & Tian, Xin & Yoshida, Taketoshi, 2022. "Credit risk prediction of SMEs in supply chain finance by fusing demographic and behavioral data," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    6. Anh Huu Nguyen & Thinh Gia Hoang & Vu Minh Ngo & Loan Quynh Thi Nguyen & Huan Huu Nguyen, 2023. "Sustainability-oriented supply chain finance in Vietnam: insights from multiple case studies," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 259-279, March.
    7. Wang, Zhiqiang & Wang, Qiang & Lai, Yin & Liang, Chaojie, 2020. "Drivers and outcomes of supply chain finance adoption: An empirical investigation in China," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    8. Chen, Sihua & Du, Jiangze & He, Wei & Siponen, Mikko, 2022. "Supply chain finance platform evaluation based on acceptability analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    9. Chakuu, Sumeer & Masi, Donato & Godsell, Janet, 2019. "Exploring the relationship between mechanisms, actors and instruments in supply chain finance: A systematic literature review," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 35-53.
    10. Wang, Mengyue & Huang, Hongxuan, 2019. "The design of a flexible capital-constrained global supply chain by integrating operational and financial strategies," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 40-62.
    11. Jiao Wang & Lima Zhao & Arnd Huchzermeier, 2021. "Operations‐Finance Interface in Risk Management: Research Evolution and Opportunities," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(2), pages 355-389, February.
    12. Rozhkov, Maxim & Ivanov, Dmitry & Blackhurst, Jennifer & Nair, Anand, 2022. "Adapting supply chain operations in anticipation of and during the COVID-19 pandemic," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    13. Kangning Zheng & Zuopeng Zhang & Jeffrey Gauthier, 2022. "RETRACTED ARTICLE: Blockchain-based intelligent contract for factoring business in supply chains," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 308(1), pages 777-797, January.
    14. Scarpin, Marcia Regina Santiago & Scarpin, Jorge Eduardo & Krespi Musial, Nayane Thais & Nakamura, Wilson Toshiro, 2022. "The implications of COVID-19: Bullwhip and ripple effects in global supply chains," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    15. Paul, Sanjoy Kumar & Chowdhury, Priyabrata & Moktadir, Md. Abdul & Lau, Kwok Hung, 2021. "Supply chain recovery challenges in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 316-329.
    16. Jena, Sarat Kumar & Padhi, Sidhartha S & Cheng, T.C.E., 2023. "Optimal selection of supply chain financing programmes for a financially distressed manufacturer," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 306(1), pages 457-477.
    17. Bürgel, Tobias R. & Hiebl, Martin R.W. & Pielsticker, David I., 2023. "Digitalization and entrepreneurial firms' resilience to pandemic crises: Evidence from COVID-19 and the German Mittelstand," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PA).
    18. Lele Zhou & Maowei Chen & Hyangsook Lee, 2022. "Supply Chain Finance: A Research Review and Prospects Based on a Systematic Literature Analysis from a Financial Ecology Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-27, November.
    19. Chowdhury, Priyabrata & Paul, Sanjoy Kumar & Kaisar, Shahriar & Moktadir, Md. Abdul, 2021. "COVID-19 pandemic related supply chain studies: A systematic review," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    20. Zhao, Nanyang & Hong, Jiangtao & Lau, Kwok Hung, 2023. "Impact of supply chain digitalization on supply chain resilience and performance: A multi-mediation model," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:sjobre:v:74:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s41471-022-00149-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.