Supply chain resilience has been growing in its importance in the last few years due to the occurrence of a number of natural and man-made disasters that have threatened the very existence of supply chain operations at a global level. Information technology has greatly helped in information sharing and other allied activities in the supply chain, thereby promoting transparency and fairness in the supply chain operations. Since many executives of the IT industry are involved in designing supply chain operations and providing allied solutions coupled with the fact that supply chain operations are still at a nascent stage in India, it gave us an impetus to study the various antecedents of supply chain resilience in the Indian context from a survey of 141 IT executives. Till now, most of the studies on supply chain resilience are anecdotal or conceptual in nature. By empirically exploring the factors like supply chain reengineering, agility, collaboration and risk management as antecedents to supply chain resilience, this study makes an important contribution to the literature of supply chain resilience from a methodology perspective.

There has been a growing concern over several supply chain issues in the recent past, of which risk management and sustainability in supply chains are worth mentioning. Also, studies in supply chain are now concerned with the ability of the same to return to its original state of operation after being disturbed (Pettit et al., 2010; and Wagner and Neshat, 2010). This property of the supply chain is called supply chain resilience (Christopher and Peck, 2004).

Recently, there has been an increase in both man-made and natural disasters. All these have increased the vulnerability of supply chains as a whole. The susceptibility of supply chains to the harm of a negative situation is called supply chain vulnerability, and the negative situation is normally referred to as supply chain disruption (Wagner and Bode, 2006). For example, Ericsson lost €400 mn after their supplier’s semiconductor plant caught fire in 2000 in New Mexico; Land Rover laidoff 1,400 workers after one of their key suppliers became insolvent in 2001; Dole’s revenue declined after their banana plantations in Central America were destroyed by ‘Hurricane Mitch’ in 1998; Ford closed five plants for several days after all air traffic was suspended after September 11, 2001; and Thai floods in 2011 devastated supply chain operations of several automobile manufacturers and computer manufacturers (Martha and Subbakrishna, 2002; Monahan et al., 2003; Chopra and Sodhi, 2004; Christopher, 2004; and Tang, 2006).

In this scenario, a need is felt to explore the antecedents of supply chain resilience in the Indian context as perceived by the IT professionals. Though it is agreed that supply chain operations in India are still not much grown, the arrival of several multinational companies in the continent has facilitated the usage of information technology, leading to a bright future for supply chain operations in the country. Further, as information sharing for tactical to strategic supply chain operations has been facilitated by IT, the experience and comments of the IT professional within the country are also relevant and context-specific.

Supply Chain Management Journal, Empirical, Investigation, Supply, Chain, Resilience, vulnerability, Literature Review, Department of Trade and Industry.