International Journal of Logistics Management, The

Purpose – Today's supply chains face increasing vulnerabilities; effective management of disruptions is critical to an organization's ability to weather disruptive events and remain competitive. Contingency planning is a method of risk management that promotes effective crisis management. This research tests proposed antecedents of contingency planning effectiveness in a supply chain setting.

Design/methodology/approach – A survey method was used to gather data from 103 participants who are involved in their respective organization's contingency planning and implementation processes. The data were analyzed using partial least squares to examine relationships between contingency planning effectiveness, inter-organizational information technology (IT) use, cooperative attitude, and inter-organizational collaboration.

Findings – The proposed model explains 87 percent of the variance in contingency planning effectiveness. The findings suggest that inter-organizational collaboration, inter-organizational IT use, and cooperative attitude directly impact contingency planning effectiveness. Inter-organizational collaboration mediates the relationships between the other antecedents and contingency planning effectiveness.

Originality/value – Although effective contingency planning has been shown to influence positive outcomes, the relationship between contingency planning effectiveness and its antecedents is not well understood in extant literature. This study identifies and investigates key antecedents to contingency planning effectiveness and provides a foundation for continued investigation.