Spanning organisational and geographical boundaries: Understanding Supply Chain Risk Management in Hidden Champions.

Abstract

Hidden Champions, niche-leading and mainly small and medium-sized family businesses, are characterised by their substantial contribution to employment and generation of gross domestic product. Although the Hidden champions face an increasing scarcity of skilled employees, they enjoy a high resilience against disruptive events. In the cross-border area of the German-speaking region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Hidden Champions hold a dominant position in the mechanical engineering industry; for their further growth, globalisation is imperative, with growth not being possible otherwise. The underlying globalised supply chains are overly complex and increasingly vulnerable to disruptive events that have amplified over time but include the recent supply chain disruptions following the Covid 19-pandemic and affecting all industries. To successfully manage and mitigate such disruptive events in the upstream supply chain, Hidden Champions, often cooperating with smaller partners that lack resources and experience, require cooperative Supply Chain Risk Management. Interorganisational training increases awareness of Supply Chain Risk Management processes; and generates common values and standards between Hidden Champions' employees and their supply chain partners, enabling agile communication and cooperation spanning organisational boundaries. By applying interpretive research based on semi-structured interviews with senior managers, it is the first study to portray the Hidden Champions' requirement to understand and improve their Supply Chain Risk Management processes and that of their supply chain partners to increase the supply chain’s resilience further. This study adds to the body of knowledge by explaining the implementation of interorganisational Supply Chain Risk Management processes at Hidden Champions. The interorganisational view of Supply Chain Risk Management, developed in this thesis, contributes by standardising and improving the Hidden Champions’ Supply Chain Risk Management processes together with those of their supply chain partners to achieve increased supply chain resilience and master future business or legislative challenges of the supply chain.