The human impact on the emergence of firm supply chain agility: a multilevel framework

The human element, especially its multilevel manifestation, has been overlooked in research investigating the antecedents of firm supply chain agility (FSCA). The purpose of this paper is to explore how a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation affect FSCA through individual capabilities and actions within the boundary conditions of individual identification with the firm and organizational work climate.

Following a multilevel approach and drawing on a cross-disciplinary reading of the literature, the authors analyze drivers and enablers of FSCA and advance a framework explaining the emergence of FSCA within the boundary conditions of transformational leadership, individual identification and organizational work climate.

The authors advance that relevant individual capabilities and intraorganizational actions underlie FSCA in the firms’ pursuit of realizing their strategic orientations as increased agile capacities. The effectiveness of individual capabilities and actions for the emergence of FSCA is contingent upon the extent to which managers identify themselves with their firm, transformational leadership and the nature of organizational work climate.

The original contribution of the paper is to explain the interplay between the multilayered attitudinal, behavioral and structural enablers of FSCA and incorporate the human element into the research on the antecedents of FSCA.