Identifying the exaptation potential of supply chain resilience capabilities during COVID-19: insights from Australia

Abstract

What happens to newly built resilience capabilities when the pandemic is over? Using the concept of exaptation, we investigate how supply chain organizations have repurposed supply chain resilience capabilities post-pandemic. In particular, we examine the degree of ambidexterity capabilities to identify the exaptation potential from the newly acquired supply chain resilience capabilities during a disruptive event. In this paper, we (1) adopt a framework that depicts four types of different exaptation potential for supply resilience based on the management constructs of exploitation and exploration capabilities and (2) use the results from a related survey among 447 supply chain managers in Australia to subsequently analyse the exaptation potentials post COVID-19. The integration of the exaptation potential into supply chain literature opens a new chapter on how resilience capabilities are utilized, and we found that the majority of supply chains are able to simultaneously pursue and develop exploitative and exploratory capabilities.