Risk Management in the Service Supply Chain: Evidence From the Healthcare Sector

Service supply chain management is more and more complex and managers find that old-style methods fall short in effectively addressing many associated challenges. Although risk management in supply chains is continuing to obtain momentous attention in the extant literature, investigation on risk aspects connecting to tactical sourcing crossways various industry segments from a transnational viewpoint is scant. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of social ties, institutional support and inter-agency collaboration in mitigating service supply chain risk in the healthcare sectors. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to collect data from 171 respondents from Ethiopia. Partial least squares structural equation model is applied to examine the association among these latent variables and the dependent variable. The result of the study indicates inter-agency collaboration plays a critical role in managing service supply chain risk, especially in volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity environment. As for practical contributions, results may be helpful to policymakers, managers and organizations to do their jobs better or build competitive advantage by responding the issues and problems related to healthcare individual managers, organizations and their partners.