Edinburgh Napier University

  China’s automotive sector has been undergoing rapid growth over the past two decades with significant increase of volume, technology upgrade and complexity of market environment. As a result, tier one suppliers have found themselves operating in an environment of fierce competition, compressed product development and launch lead time, and sophisticated supply chain vulnerable to disruptions, which is especially true for the companies which have deployed lean manufacturing practices.

The researcher has worked with several foreign invested automotive tier ones in China over the past two decades and has witnessed many supply chain risks and disruptions while personally leading multiple risk mitigation campaigns. It has been brought to attention that the occurrence of supply chain disruption has registered an increase in the course of recent years. The purpose of this research is to explore perceptions of practitioners in this field and develop a set of guidelines for the mitigation of supply chain risks.

The research has been undertaken by applying social constructionist ontology, interpretivist epistemology, using inductive qualitative research methodology, to draw an understanding of key issues perceived by ten practitioners within a single study organisation. Thematic analysis was utilised to explore the research data drawn upon the semi structured interviews.

The research has identified three main themes that are perceived by participants to be antecedents of perceived risks and risk mitigation enablers, namely: perceived risks mainly arise from mis-alignment; resilience plays a vital role in supply chain risk mitigation; and transformational leadership style and organisation development are necessary for supply chain risk mitigation. Analysis has further suggested that both resilience and leadership styles can be synergised, and their aggregated synergy will support supply chain in risk mitigation. A framework is developed to outline these relations. Consequently, a set of guidelines is developed to assist practitioners in building their own risk mitigation strategies in their specific business circumstances. In light of this research and the findings thereof, contributions are made to knowledge and practice, which is also deemed as novel in risk management of supply chain.