Abstract
The number and severity of disruptive events in recent times have increased the interest in resilience. The petrochemical industry is an economically important sector in developing countries; however, the industry is vulnerable to fluctuation in commodity prices and changes in the demand for petrochemical products. Supply chain resilience was reported to assist organisations to cope with disruptions and procurement was found to contribute towards supply chain resilience. The purpose of the study was to investigate procurement resilience through the assessment of the vulnerability factors and capabilities, which can mitigate these vulnerabilities. The study was quantitative and employed a survey strategy in the form of a questionnaire, which was distributed to procurement specialists in five petrochemical companies operating in South Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic. The IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0™ software package was employed in the statistical analyses. The vulnerability factors: (i) external pressures, (ii) connectivity, (iii) sensitivity, (iv) resource limits, and (v) turbulence were investigated. Connectivity and sensitivity were scored with the highest relative importance but were viewed as the least disruptive suggesting that these vulnerabilities are being actively managed. Turbulence, resource limitations and external pressures were ranked with the highest disruptive impact, but were perceived with the lowest relative importance, signalling that these vulnerabilities need future focus. Collaboration, capacity, visibility, flexibility, adaptability and employee resilience were the capability factors under investigation. Flexibility, employee resilience and adaptability were shown as the most effective in mitigating the vulnerabilities with the highest disruptive impact, that is, turbulence, resource limitations and external pressures respectively. TheWilcoxon test was used to assess the capability < vulnerability matched pairs, as the indicator of weaker capabilities to show gaps in the capabilities. Collaboration, flexibility and adaptability exhibited the highest number of instances of capability < vulnerability matched pairs. This finding correlates with the trend observed for the capabilities that collaboration, adaptability and flexibility were perceived as the weakest capability factors and require further future investigation.
M.Com. (Businesss Management)