When the Going Gets Tough: Extraordinary Efforts by Suppliers during Supply Chain Disruptions

Purpose

Supply chain disruptions from sources such as natural disasters, labor shocks and geopolitical conflicts create severe coordination challenges and threaten supply chain continuity. During the COVID-19 pandemic – an extreme case of such disruptions – an intriguing phenomenon emerged: While many supplier contracts were canceled or invalidated, some suppliers exerted extraordinary efforts to fill their customers' orders at their own substantial sacrifice (e.g. the loss of millions of dollars). This paper examines the enablers of such efforts and proposes the supply chain citizenship behavior (SCCB) concept to capture these discretionary behaviors that emerged during the crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a multimethod sequential research design, consisting of a multiple-case study of customer–supplier dyads followed by a scenario-based role-playing experiment using managers as respondents.

Findings

This paper revealed how suppliers engaged in unprecedented collaborative efforts during the crisis, transforming citizenship behaviors from operational niceties to strategic imperatives for supply chain resilience. The results demonstrated that affective commitment served as a stronger motivational force than economic dependence in driving these extraordinary behaviors during the crisis.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the supply chain collaboration literature by conceptualizing SCCB, which extends organizational citizenship behavior theory to supply chain relationships. This study advances our understanding of how established relationship factors function under extreme conditions and provides guidance for building crisis-responsive supply chain partnerships, which is especially valuable in a world facing supply chain uncertainty and volatility.