Purpose

The purpose of this study is to critically examine the scholarly articles associated with the diverse aspects of supply chain agility (SCA). The review highlights research insights, existing gaps and future research directions that can help academicians and practitioners gain a comprehensive understanding of SCA.

Design/methodology/approach

The present study has adopted author co-citation analysis as the research methodology, with a view to thoroughly investigating the good-quality articles related to SCA that have been published over a period of 22 years (1999-2020). In this study, 126 research papers on SCA – featuring diverse aspects of agility – from various reputed journals have been examined, analysed and assimilated.

Findings

The salient findings of this research are, namely, agility is different from other similar concepts, such as flexibility, leanness, adaptability and resilience; of the 13 dimensions of agility discussed in the literature, the prominent ones are quickness, responsiveness, competency and flexibility; literature related to SCA can be categorised as related to modelling the enablers, agility assessment, agility implementation, leagility and agility maximisation. This research proposes a more practical definition and framework for SCA. The probable areas for future research are, namely, impediments to agility, effective approaches to agility assessment, cost-benefit trade-offs to be considered whilst implementing agility, empirical research to validate the framework and SCA in the domain of healthcare and disaster relief supply chains.

Practical implications

This paper provides substantial insights to practitioners who primarily focus on measuring and implementing agility in the supply chain. The findings of this study will help the supply chain manager gain a better idea about how to become competitive in today’s dynamic and turbulent business environment.

Originality/value

The originality of this study is in: comprehensively identifying the various issues related to SCA, such as related concepts, definitions, dimensions and different categories of studies covered in literature, proposing a new definition and framework for SCA and identifying potential areas for future research, to provide deeper insights into the subject and highlight areas for future research.

中文翻译：

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对供应链敏捷性文献的系统评价

目的

本研究的目的是批判性地检查与供应链敏捷性 (SCA) 的各个方面相关的学术文章。该综述突出了研究见解、现有差距和未来研究方向，可以帮助院士和从业人员全面了解 SCA。

设计/方法/方法

本研究采用作者共被引分析作为研究方法，旨在彻底调查22年（1999-2020）发表的与SCA相关的优质文章。在这项研究中，来自各种知名期刊的 126 篇关于 SCA 的研究论文——具有敏捷性的不同方面——已经过检查、分析和吸收。

发现

本研究的显着发现是，敏捷性不同于其他类似概念，如灵活性、精益性、适应性和弹性；在文献中讨论的敏捷性的 13 个维度中，突出的维度是速度、响应能力、能力和灵活性；与 SCA 相关的文献可分为与促成因素建模、敏捷性评估、敏捷性实施、敏捷性和敏捷性最大化相关的文献。本研究为 SCA 提出了一个更实用的定义和框架。未来研究的可能领域是，即敏捷性的障碍、敏捷性评估的有效方法、实施敏捷性时要考虑的成本效益权衡、验证框架的实证研究以及医疗保健和救灾供应领域的 SCA链。

实际影响

本文为主要关注在供应链中衡量和实施敏捷性的从业者提供了丰富的见解。这项研究的结果将帮助供应链经理更好地了解如何在当今动态和动荡的商业环境中变得具有竞争力。

原创性/价值

本研究的独创性在于：全面识别与SCA相关的各种问题，如文献中涉及的相关概念、定义、维度和不同类别的研究，提出SCA的新定义和框架，并确定未来研究的潜在领域，提供对该主题的更深入见解并突出未来研究的领域。