Brace yourself – Building adaptive capacity in order
to deal with changes
Explored by cases of the refugee service supply chain.
Katharina Erdpresser
Thesis for the MSc program of Supply Chain Management Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen
Supervisors: Kirstin Scholten & Carolien de Blok
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Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to explore how adaptive capacity can be built in organisations operating
within service supply chains (SSCs). Adaptive capacity is the ability to prepare, adjust or respond to changes through adjustments and usage of company-owned resources. As a theoretical bridge between adaptive capacity and supply chain resilience literature can be established, this research analyses how components of resilience facilitate changes in those resources and impact adaptive capacity.
Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory case study consisting of 16 organisations operating
in a refugee SSC was conducted.
Findings – Key findings show how specific activities (Hiring/acquisition, resource pooling, flexible
usage of working hours/commodities, working harder and training) facilitate changes of the resources that compute adaptive capacity via increased flexibility, velocity, visibility, and collaboration. Underlying mechanisms and interdependencies of these factors within the analysed organisations are identified.
Originality/value – This is one of the first papers to provide in-depth insights into mechanisms of
resource up- and downscaling as an influential element of adaptive capacity in a service supply chain setting. A series of propositions explain the specific influence of those mechanisms on adaptive capacity beyond a single case perspective.
Keywords Adaptive capacity, Service Supply Chain, Resources, Up- and downscaling, Flexibility, Velocity, Visibility, Collaboration
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Table of Content
Abstract ... 2 List of Figures ... 4 List of Tables ... 4 1. Introduction ... 52. Theoretical Framework and Conceptual Model ... 6
2.1. Service Supply Chain ... 6
2.2. Adaptive Capacity ... 7
2.3. Influential Factors of Adaptive Capacity ... 9
2.4. Conceptual Model ... 12
3. Methodology ... 13
3.1. Defining the Method ... 13
3.1. Research Setting ... 13
3.2. Case Selection ... 15
3.3. Interview Protocol & Data Collection ... 17
3.4. Coding Method and Data Analysis ... 18
4. Results ... 20
4.1. Alternative (flexible) Usage ... 22
4.2. Acquisition ... 23 4.3. Resource Pooling ... 24 4.4. Working Harder ... 25 4.5. (In-house) Training ... 26 5. Discussion ... 27 6. Conclusion ... 29 6.1. Managerial Implications ... 29
6.2. Limitations and Research Implications ... 30
7. Acknowledgements ... 31
8. References ... 31
9. Appendix ... 37
9.1. Adaptive Capacity in Literature ... 37
9.2. Supply Chain Resilience in Literature ... 38
9.3. Research Protocol ... 40
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List of Figures
Figure 1: Conceptual Model of adaptive capacity in SSCs; deriving the variables from Jüttner &
Maklan (2011) and defining the resources according to Penrose (2009) ... 13
Figure 2: Number of first time asylum applicants in the EU Member States 2014/2015 (Eurostat Press Office 2016) ... 14
Figure 3: Overview of the services provided by the cases analysed ... 15
Figure 4: Overview of the short- & long-term separation of the refugee supply chain ... 15
Figure 5: Found Mechanism – Alternative Usage, its Enablers and affected Resources ... 23
Figure 6: Found Mechanism – Acquisition, its Enablers and affected Resources ... 24
Figure 7: Found Mechanism - Resource Pooling, its Enablers and affected Resources ... 25
Figure 8: Found Mechanism - Working Harder, its Enablers and affected Resource ... 26
Figure 9: Found Mechanism - (In-house) Training, its Enablers and the Resource affected ... 27
List of Tables
Table 1: Classification of Resources according to Penrose (2009) and Tomer (1990) ... 8Table 2: Categorisation of Influence Factors for Adaptive Capacity ... 10
Table 3: Definitions of Supply Chain Resilience Factors derived from Jüttner and Maklan (2011) .... 11
Table 4: Overview of selected Cases including Interview and Observation Details as well as Position within the Chain ... 16
Table 5: Coding Examples ... 18
Table 6: Validity and reliability assured for this research derived from Yin (1994) ... 20
Table 7: Overview of the found Mechanisms and their Attributes incl. Quotes from Interview ... 21
Table 8: Overview of Adaptive Capacity in Literature ... 37
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1. Introduction
In 2015 more than 1.2 million asylum seekers reached European soil (Eurostat Press Office 2016), which caught many countries off-guard and created a huge backlog of applicants, who were meanwhile stranded in overcrowded reception centres (Clayton & Holland 2015; BBC News 2016; Bowlby 2016). The management of asylum seekers encompasses several public and private organisations, which provide a range of services (e.g. shelter, medical assistance, counselling) to them. The organisations involved, were urged to take quick and effective measures in order to meet the increased demand for the services they provided. Those rapid actions can be efficiently implemented when organisations effectively leverage their resources (Yi et al. 2016). Having sufficient stocks of resources for example, allows organisations, if only for a limited period of time, to sustain themselves when facing unfamiliar situations (Kraatz & Zajac 2001). An ever-changing environment (e.g. strong demand fluctuations) and possible restrictions on the accessibility of resources can make it difficult to successfully implement adaptations (Yi et al. 2016). This problem, however, is not only restricted to the refugee crisis alone. It can also be observed throughout all supply chains (SCs), which are exposed to supply and/or demand variability as it happens during natural disasters, accidents & epidemics or simply unexpected fluctuations. However, the special characteristics of service supply chains (SSCs) of being very labour intense as well as the produced services being unable to store, make it all the more difficult to adjust its capacities (Nie & Kellogg 1999; Akkermans & Vos 2003; Heizer & Render 2008; Cho et al. 2012) and raise therefore the need for easy adaptations. The ability to react appropriately is called “adaptive capacity” or “adaptability” (Kabra & Ramesh 2016; Eakin et al. 2011; Engle 2011) and deals with decisions on distribution and usage of resources in times of change and disruption (Nelson et al. 2007; Hess et al. 2012). In particular, up- and downscaling decisions (e.g. setting up new buildings, hiring more staff) are made and later implemented with the help of adaptive capacity so that the organisation is capable of buffering the effects of the unexpected event.
The existence of adaptive capacity in an organisation makes it possible to absorb occurring shocks and respond to them, which then protect the organisation from externalities and disruptions (Milestad et al. 2010; Bradaschia & Pereira 2015). Hence, an organisation with adequate adaptive capacity finds itself more prepared for current and upcoming changes (Milestad et al. 2010; Bradaschia & Pereira 2015). Adaptive capacity is often mentioned alongside other concepts of supply chain resilience (Edson 2012; Eakin et al. 2011; Carpenter & Brock 2008) and is therefore influenced by similar constructs (e.g. flexibility, velocity, visibility, collaboration) which also impact resilience.
6 knowledge, there is no research that combines adaptive capacity with SSCs. It is important to fill this gap in literature, so that a better picture of adaptive capacity can be created within SSC literature and one can understand what and how factors impact organisational adaptive capacity. Furthermore, managerial contribution is provided by making knowledge about the concept adaptive capacity and means of building it, more accessible. This improves, when implemented correctly, an organisation’s preparedness for uncertainties. The purpose of this study is to answer the following research question:
“How can adaptive capacity be built and/or improved within an organisation operating in a service supply chain?”
For this, multiple cases have been chosen that fulfil the criteria of being exposed to unexpected changes as well as operating in a SSC. Semi-structured interviews with representatives of these organisations have been conducted. As a result, this research makes several key contributions. First, although adaptive capacity is dealt with in many papers of other fields of research (e.g. environmental or disaster studies), a linkage to SSCs still remains scarce. This research is one of the first studies to link those two and provides new insights of how adaptive capacity is facilitated within a SSC setting. Second, this study sheds further light on the role of the supply chain resilience factors in building adaptive capacity.
The rest of this paper is organised as follows: Section two deals with the theoretical framework and the creation of the conceptual model. Thereafter, the methodology section is about the data collection, which subsequently get presented in the results section and further elaborated upon in the discussion section. Finally, the conclusion summarises the key findings of the research, provides managerial and practical implications, limitations and suggestions for further research.
2. Theoretical Framework and Conceptual Model
2.1. Service Supply Chain
7 for flexibility (Olhager et al. 2001). Not only can insufficient capacity lead to shortages, unused capacity in times of low demand is lost for good (Arlbjørn et al. 2011). Better demand forecasts and strategies for effectively dealing with these uncertainties are therefore sought after. When demand variability is difficult to regulate and foresee, one way of overcoming strong fluctuations is by being flexible in one’s capacity planning. The ability to swiftly adapt capacity through up- or downscaling mechanisms e.g. hiring temp workers; is therefore very beneficial. Generally speaking, the ability to quickly make use of resources, may they be of physical, human or organisational nature, reduces the possible negative consequences caused by drastic changes due mismatches in supply and demand.
To provide an example; the ability to speak Arabic (Human Resource) allows a legal advisor to provide counselling to a non-English speaking Syrian refugee, who otherwise would have to wait for an interpreter or would have been denied this service altogether. Another example is the usage of the Europewide fingerprint database “EURODAC”(Organisational Resource), which allows for a faster registration process of asylum seekers and leads to more efficiency in dealing with increased demand (European Commission 2015). These are only two out of numerous examples of an organisational ability to react to changes – also known as adaptive capacity.
2.2. Adaptive Capacity
The term “adaptive capacity”, sometimes also referred to as “adaptability” (Eakin et al. 2011; Engle 2011), has its origin within the environmental studies, but rises to more and more prominence in other fields, including SC management (see Nelson et al. 2007; Engle 2011; Kabra & Ramesh 2016; and Hess et al. 2012). However, it has found little recognition within the SSC management field. The concept has been defined in many, slightly different ways (see appendix 1), though all have one underlying principle in common – it refers to the ability to adapt to current or future stresses and changes as it bears the potential of buffering fluctuating demand of services. Additionally, several authors point out, that adaptive capacity is enabled by a set of resources, its availability and the ability to distribute and use them (e.g. Bleda & Shackley 2008; Engle 2011; Nelson et al. 2007; Hess et al. 2012; Armitage 2005; Brown 2009; Marshall & Smajgl 2013). Hence we chose the definition by Hess et al. (2012) to be used in this research:
“adaptive capacity, that is, the resources for adaptation and the ability to use them effectively and efficiently, and implementing adaptive actions.” (Hess et al. 2012 p. 171).
8 and Tomer’s (1990) classification into physical, human, and organisational resources. Table 1 provides an overview of the three types of resources with a coherent definition and examples for further illustration for each.
Table 1: Classification of Resources according to Penrose (2009) and Tomer (1990)
Type Definition Examples
Physical Resource
Tangible things. Traditionally, physical resources are (partially) used up during production. However, in SSCs they function primarily as a supporting resource during service provision. They are durable and can be used for an extended period of time (e.g. buildings). Physical resources can be acquired in the market or produced within the firm. Buildings, equipment, tools, infrastructure, financial capital, technology, etc. Human Resource
Within a firm, human resources consist primarily of labour and staff. Some employees are hired for a long period of time and may represent substantial investment costs for the firm. The employees can be seen as a more or less fixed and stable resource even though the firm does not “own” or “possess” them. In case of an employee leaving the firm at the height of his/her ability, the firm might experience a loss akin to a capital loss.
(Un)skilled labour and staff, information known to the staff, knowledge, know-how, competences, experience, etc.
Organisational Resource
Organisational resources have some overlaps with, and therefore comprise a subcategory of human resources. Unlike in human resources, investments in organisational resources are not embodied in particular workers but rather in organisational relationships with them. That is why this type includes processes, structures, as well as relationships. Organisational climate, the structure of an organisation and its’ socialisation processes determines the behaviour and productivity of an individual, which in return contributes to organisational resources.
Processes, Reporting structure, (in)formal planning, controlling, and coordinating system, informal relations among groups.
9 Those mechanisms supposedly facilitate changes in resources, primarily through up or downscaling of the resource but also by making the use of it more efficient or effective. In terms of physical resources, access to a vacant building or a transportable housing module, such as a “Better Shelters” for example (Better Shelter 2016), can be utilised as emergency shelters in times of need for additional housing capacity. Additional training for staff (human resource) such as language courses for example, allows them to be matched with a wider range of tasks, e.g. looking after children from the middle east instead of being limited to only English-speaking children. Furthermore, an introduction of a message board, and therefore a change of a communication structure within an organisation, allows for a more efficient and effective way of sharing information with other members of the organisation. Those are rather practical examples and their effect on buffering the impact from the changed environment is debatable. However, those up- and downscaling mechanisms are believed to be triggered by some factors which the following chapter elaborates further upon.
2.3. Influential Factors of Adaptive Capacity
With adaptive capacity being the ability to alter resources in order to meet changes in an organisations environment such as demand fluctuations, one can see several overlapping influence factors for both, adaptive capacity as well as SC resilience throughout literature. Appendix 9.1 provides an overview of concepts that are ought to have an impact on adaptive capacity and therewith supports this argument. Nelson et al. (2007) for example, state that adaptive capacity is a core feature of resilience, whereas Walker et al. (2004) argue that adaptive capacity is not equivalent to the concept of resilience, but rather a fundamental characteristic of a resilient system. To illustrate that further, Ponomarov and Holcomb (2009) include adaptive capacity, or here rather capability, in their definition of SC resilience:
“the adaptive capability of the supply chain to prepare for unexpected events, respond to disruptions, and recover from them by maintaining continuity of operations at the desired level of connectedness and control over structure and function” (Ponomarov & Holcomb 2009 p. 131).
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Table 2: Categorisation of Influence Factors for Adaptive Capacity
Author
Direct quote from adaptive capacity literature
Ass.
concept
Brown (2009), p. 530
"Such institutional flexibility in problem solving would enhance the adaptive capacity…"
Flexibility Reid & Botterill
(2013), p. 36
"The third type of resilience is openness and adaptability, which ‘reduces vulnerability through a high degree of flexibility’." Pettit et al.
(2013), p. 69
"Capabilities—attributes that enable an enterprise to anticipate and overcome disruptions, for example flexibility, adaptability, capacity, visibility and anticipation."
Kabra & Ramesh (2016), p. 91
"… supply chain flexibility is positively related to adaptability..."
Piaszczyk (2011), p. 244
"Also important is a firm’s level of SCS visibility, where increased visibility can lead to responsive risk identification, allowing firms
more time to incorporate protective measures to be better
insulated from risk [Caridi et al., 2010]."
Velocity Pettit et al.
(2013), p. 48
"Managing change is essential. In the corporate environment, not being prepared for change and not designing and managing a supply chain that can react and adapt quickly can be very costly." Buliga et al.
(2014), p. 653
"Adaptability implies, on the one hand, effective and fast action during crises (Mallak 1998; Horne and Orr 1998; Weick et al. 1999; Sutcliffe and Vogus 2003; McDonald 2006)."
Piaszczyk (2011), p. 244
"Also important is a firm’s level of SCS visibility, where increased visibility can lead to responsive risk identification, allowing firms more time to incorporate protective measures to be better
insulated from risk [Caridi et al., 2010]."
Visibility Pettit et al.
(2013), p. 69
"Capabilities—attributes that enable an enterprise to anticipate and overcome disruptions, for example flexibility, adaptability, capacity, visibility and anticipation."
Kabra & Ramesh (2016), p. 93-94
"The most crucial factor in dealing with disaster response is the
availability of information."
Berkhout et al. (2004), p. 2
"the adaptive capacity of companies depends not only on internal characteristics, but also on external relationships. Effective adaptation will often involve cooperation with regulators, suppliers, competitors and customers."
Collabora tion Armitage (2005),
p. 709
"Socio-institutional dimensions of adaptive capacity, therefore, are closely connected to the concept of social capital or the features of social organization that facilitate collaboration and
cooperation for mutual benefit, such as networks, norms, and
social trust (Putnam 1995). Features like trust, reciprocity, and cohesion that help to form social capital influence the capacity for adaptation..."
Strichman et al. (2007), p. 225
"… and a culture of collaboration and trust are essential elements to support individual learning (Volpe & Marsick, 1999)".
Whereas individual learning is represented as an intellectual and human resource according to Morris et al. (2001) and therefore links the statement to adaptive capacity.
Kabra & Ramesh (2016), p. 94
"Hence, regular communication, coordination and collaboration among these diverse stakeholders is necessary to improve the disaster response (Robinson, 2006)."
11 organisational capacity. They are facilitated by adaptive capacity and require flexibility (Carpenter & Brock 2008). Furthermore, it is necessary to respond to changes quickly (velocity), so that in case of a drastic change the negative effects are mitigated or possibly even eliminated. Long delays from the recognition of the change, till the resources are adapted accordingly can cause harm to organisations in SSCs. However, reacting to changes requires the knowledge of its existence in the first place. Visibility throughout the SSC facilitates this knowledge (Jüttner & Maklan 2011), which simultaneously has an impact on human resources. For that, information is shared amongst members of the SSC, which can result in a detection of abnormalities and trends. Furthermore, collaboration between members of the SC enables amongst other things, a better information distribution amongst the parties involved. Working together on implementing an adaptation can also lead to know-how spill-overs and resource pooling (Jüttner & Maklan 2011). The merged access, improves the overall availability of resources which subsequently enables adaptive capacity. Knowing that these four factors, do not only influence SC resilience but also impact adaptive capacity, we decided to analyse how they facilitate adaptive capacity. In order to do so, we provided a definition for each factor which can be seen in table 3.
Table 3: Definitions of Supply Chain Resilience Factors derived from Jüttner and Maklan (2011)
Concept Definition
Flexibility Flexibility enables organizations to deal with high levels of uncertainty (Mentzer et al. 2008; Scholten et al. 2014) and has the goal to accommodate different or changing needs of customers through quick responses (Tosun & Uysal 2016).
Velocity Velocity focuses on the pace of flexible adaptation, or the rate of speed at which adaptations are implemented (Jüttner & Maklan 2011). For that the rates of which an event happens, losses caused by that event occur, discovery of the event, and recovery from it, are taken into consideration (Mentzer et al. 2008; Jüttner & Maklan 2011). Visibility Supply chain visibility deals with the accessibility of information about entities and
events across supply chains and prevents ineffective decision making in risky situations (Jüttner & Maklan 2011).
Collaboration Collaboration means that different organisations work together and share risk. It is not only advisable to collaborate solely during disruptions as shared experiences may also have an effect on the ability to deal with upcoming disruptions (Jüttner & Maklan 2011).
The definitions indicated above are applicable for supply chains in general. Supply chain flexibility for example, has emerged from the manufacturing flexibility literature and is to date largely confined to manufacturing SCs and neglects the role of services (Stevenson et al. 2007). As this research deals with adaptive capacity of SSCs, we take possible discrepancies towards SSCs into account.
12 modifications in service fulfilment times, resources that can be used in more than one way, redundancy in terms of slack or unused resources and a multi-skilled workforce are factors that enable flexibility in the SC (Johnson et al., 2013; Sheffi and Rice, 2005). Although flexibility enables an effective response to changes, it needs to be balanced with the need for efficiency (Pettit et al., 2010, 2013). Velocity places a strong emphasis on the efficiency of the SC’s response and recovery (Jüttner and Maklan, 2011; Smith, 2004; Stevenson and Spring, 2007). Higher velocity in this regard leads to quicker response to market changes or events (Christopher and Peck, 2004) and helps to improve the speed of recovery from unexpected events (Jüttner and Maklan, 2011; Wieland and Wallenburg, 2013). Furthermore, visibility, the ability to see from one end of the pipeline to the other (Christopher and Peck, 2004), is important for the same reason. Visibility is determined by the extent to which SC actors share and have access to important information (Jüttner and Maklan, 2011). It therefore can be considered as a prerequisite for responding to changes (Wieland and Wallenburg, 2013). Additionally, organisations engaged in collaborative relationships achieve improved visibility, higher service levels, increased flexibility, greater end-customer satisfaction and reduced service time (Daugherty et al., 2006). Hence, are the factors flexibility, visibility and velocity also influenced by SC collaboration.
2.4. Conceptual Model
13
Figure 1: Conceptual Model of adaptive capacity in SSCs; deriving the variables from Jüttner & Maklan (2011) and defining the resources according to Penrose (2009)
3. Methodology
3.1. Defining the Method
With the aim of gaining insight into how different concepts such as flexibility, velocity, visibility, and collaboration facilitate the building of adaptive capacity of organisations operating within a SSCs, this study uses case study methodology (Aurini et al. 2016). This research is of rather exploratory nature, which primarily deals with the development of a new theory. For this, case study methodology is particularly suitable (Voss 2009). Furthermore, case studies are very useful when the definition of constructs is yet uncertain (Mukherjee et al. 2000 as cited in Voss 2009), which is partially the case in this research. We want to define the patterns and linkages between the variables (flexibility, velocity, etc.) and changes in resources which constitute adaptive capacity. For this, 16 case studies were conducted using semi-structured interviews. Organisations operating within a SSCs make up all 16 cases and are simultaneously the unit of analysis.
3.1. Research Setting
Given our objective of identifying means of creating adaptive capacity of an organisation operating within a SSC, we require a context with four important attributes. First, a research setting in which organisations were exposed to and impacted by unexpected or very abrupt changes in their environment, must be given. Second, these changes must have urged the organisations to take measures, through up- or downscaling of accessible resources for example. Third, we must be able to reasonably identify how these changes came into existence. And finally, all of the organisations analysed must operate in a SSC. Our chosen context, the recent European refugee crisis, satisfies these four desiderata.
With respect to the first criteria, we know that the organisations operating during this refugee crisis were exposed to a drastic increase of incoming refugees. This drastic change is illustrated in the
Adaptive capacity in Service Supply Chains
Changes in
Resources
14 figure 2 below, which states the first-time asylum applicants in EU member states. Compared to 2014, the number of first-time applications has increased by more than 123% (Eurostat Press Office 2016).
Figure 2: Number of first time asylum applicants in the EU Member States 2014/2015 (Eurostat Press Office 2016)
Many organisations were sheer overwhelmed by the increased number of people needing to be serviced, which urged them to take quick measures such as for example re/allocating resources wherever they were needed the most. Important attributes of the organisations involved, were their limited capacity in terms of available resources, and the ways they overcame this challenge. With respect to the last desideratum, we know that the organisations operating in the refugee setting provide services either directly (e.g. lodging, medical care, etc.) or indirectly to the asylum seeker. The indirect services primarily consist of coordinating and planning tasks and services that do not require direct involvement by the asylum seeker (e.g. judging the validity of an application). Examples for indirect services range from providing national security (case O), over negotiating political agendas with the asylum seeker at interest (case K), to providing assistance and know-how to and coordinating with other organisations so that a common network of well-functioning parties establishes (case P). An overview of the main areas of responsibility and services offered can be seen in figure 3 below. The parties involved in this setting are amongst others, governmental institutions which have a more administrative and coordinating task; private as well as charity organisations. The latter two count accommodation in reception centres, provision of necessities (e.g. food, clothes, medicine) or services such as translations and counselling as their main field of operation.
An additional reason for choosing the European refugee crisis as research setting, is the fact, that this phenomenon happened very recently and adequate data is therefore accessible. Hence, this setting is most suitable for conducting our research.
562.680 1.255.640 200.000 400.000 600.000 800.000 1.000.000 1.200.000 1.400.000
Number of first time asylum applicants in
the EU Member States 2014/2015
15
Figure 3: Overview of the services provided by the cases analysed
3.2. Case Selection
It has been decided to look into 16 different organisations that provide services and operate in the refugee setting. The cases differ in their business sector they operate in. However, together they are able to provide most services an asylum seeker or refugee requires. Table 4 provides an overview of the chosen cases with its field of activity. Furthermore, the table provides details on the interviewees and the length of the interview. We want to highlight that data collection in organisation L has been done in two parts: (1) through an observation indicated in project 12 and (2) through an interview with a case manager. Lastly, the table also indicates the part in which the organisation is situated within the SC (either short-term or long-short-term). This allows for a better understanding of where the organisation operates in. Figure 4 provides a chronological overview of refugee SC and shows the distinction between short- and long-term refugee SSC.
Figure 4: Overview of the short- & long-term separation of the refugee supply chain
The chain starts with a resting period for the asylum seeker. At this point the asylum seeker has just arrived in the country and is able to recover from the exertions of his/her journey. After that, the asylum procedure starts during which governmental institutions assess one’s asylum application and check it for credibility. This can take up to several months and ends with the determination of whether someone
Reception; 2 Health Care; 2 Education; 1 (Legal) assistance; 5 Governmental Tasks; 5 National Security; 1
16 is granted the status of a refugee or not. In case of a positive result, the asylum seeker can then be officially referred to as refugee and enters the long-term part of the chain. This part of the chain primarily deals with integration and naturalisation of the refugee and takes up to several years. Due to the fact that the long-term part of the chain takes up to several years to be completed, we want to point out that by the time this research has been conducted, several if not all organisations operating in this area are still experiencing the aftermath of the drastic increase of incoming people. On the other hand, most organisations operating in the short-term part surpassed the challenges entailed with the drastic increase and in some cases (e.g. reception centres, medical examinations) even have returned to the same or similar level of utilisation as it has been noted before the crisis. This can have an influence on the research, as data collected from organisations operating in the short chain can provide insights on the whole process of building and exploiting adaptive capacity whereas this might be restricted in the cases from the long-term chain due to the fact that they are still situated somewhere along this process.
Concerning the case selection, we decided to choose cases that indicate similar results for predictable reasons, also known as literal replication (Voss 2009). The similarity in the cases can be explained by the fact, that all were affected by the increased influx of asylum seekers urging them to take measures so that their capacity of handling the situation could be improved. In order to do so, we assumed, they took different means, which allowed them to influence their resources through mechanisms. These mechanisms constitute the findings of our research and will be elaborated further in the findings section.
Furthermore, snowball sampling has been used to supplement the method of literal replication during the case selection process. For that, some interviewees referred to other organisations that fit our selection criteria and with whom the initial contact has been established through the interviewees.
Table 4: Overview of selected Cases including Interview and Observation Details as well as Position within the Chain
No. Sector of provided service
Interviewee position Part of
chain
Length of interview
A – 1 Refugee education Educational manager LT 52 min.
B – 2 Reception services Case manager ST 45 min.
C – 3 Health care and welfare Policy advisor ST & LT 46 min.
D – 4 Legal services /
residence permits
Deputy division manager ST 40 min
E – 5 Legal services Refugee lawyer ST 58 min.
(phone)
F – 6 Refugee assistance Advisor public affairs ST 38 min.
G – 7 Health care insurance Division manager ST 60 min.
H – 8 Public governance Division manager ST 60 min.
I – 9 Public governance
operations
17 * Observation: 120 min tour through the facilities of organisation L
3.3. Interview Protocol & Data Collection
The prime source of data for this research are interviews – in particular semi-structured interviews. Furthermore, we also had access to a supplementary source in form of an observation, which was analysed. The rich data and the face-to-face meetings, leaving room for finding time to ask questions about unclear statements, are advantages of interviews. In order to enhance reliability and validity of the gathered case research data, we made use of a research protocol which helped to keep the interviews more standardised (Yin 1994). This protocol was developed (see appendix 9.3) on the basis of existing literature and group discussions with supervisors and other students. It outlines the topics that are addressed during the interview and also provides the interviewee with sample questions.
The aim of the interview was to explore how adaptive capacity has been built in organisations operating in SSCs. Each entity that agreed upon participating in this research was visited once. The interviews were held with one representatives of the organisation in question with the exception of a few cases were assistants and other employees were present as well. Open-ended questions and probes were asked to encourage the interviewee to give us detailed responses. All interviews began with general questions about the organisation, its tasks and the background and position of the interviewee. Afterwards, we asked participants to walk us through the time they experienced the drastic increase of asylum seekers. Questions on how they discovered the need, what measures they took and what they learnt from this experience were asked. The completion of the interview guide took on average 60 minutes. All the parties involved filled in a consent form to maintain common interests and values. We were permitted to record the sessions, which combined with notes made during the interview helped to accurately transcribe the interviews verbatim, and in turn validate the gathered data and achieve triangulation (Meredith 1998). After each interview, a follow-up e-mail was sent to the entity enabling the transcripts, which when verified allowed the researcher to correct any inaccuracies or mistakes in the transcripts.
J – 10 Public governance Counsellor LT 28 min.
K – 11 Public governance Local politician and
spokesperson
LT 38 min.
L – 12* Reception services n/a ST 120 min
L – 13 Reception services Case manager ST 105 min
M – 14 Refugee assistance Team leader LT 64 min.
N – 15 Public governance Team leader ST n/a
O – 16 National Security Employee ST 50 min.
P – 17 Public governance Local politician and
spokesperson
18
3.4. Coding Method and Data Analysis
For the entire coding process atlas.ti has been used. We started reducing the transcripts by means of coding on the four SC resilience factors and the three resource types as described in the theoretical model. First, transcripts were individually coded from quotes that matched the definitions of the variables. Codes that could be related to both, at least one independent variable (e.g. flexibility, velocity, etc.) and one of the resources, were grouped into a descriptive code (second-order category). Subsequently, we looked at the second order codes for each type of resource separately, looking for similarities and underlying common factors. Those, then got identified as mechanisms and present the third-order themes. The mechanisms found allowed us to answer our research question of how adaptive capacity can be built for organisations operating in SSCs. Table 5 provides an excerpt of the coding tree used.
Table 5: Coding Examples
Link to resilience factor Link to reso urce
Data reduction (1st-order codes) Descript.
code (2nd -order category) Mechani sm (3rd -order theme)
Flexibility Phys. “Exactly. But we decided to use it only once and distributed the following arrivals to other centres. Because – I don’t know whether you know the tobacco factory – those are big halls, so they are not really suitable for accommodation, also not heated and it was late fall when they arrived. Obviously, the fire department provided temporary heating but also not to such an extent that you could host people there for several days.” (Organisation P) Ad-hoc measure to increase capacity Alt. usage
Velocity Hum. “Interviewer: ‘Yes, okay, imagine getting information very late, “a bus is arriving now”, that sort of things, how do you deal with that on the floor?’ ‘Act. That lies in the power of [name of NGO], how [name of contact person] stated, you simply roll up your sleeves and get to work.’” (Organisation F) Reaction to unexpect ed arrivals “Working harder”
Visibility Phys. “’So, there we have noticed that the pressure has increased simply because there had to be found places somewhere else, of course the capacity should also be used.’ Researcher: ‘Yes, precisely, that’s why new buildings were built?’ ‘Yes, yes.’” (Organisation B)
19 Visibility Hum. “No, I can ehm, the ehhm, the planning is done [Name of
organisation], the legal counsel, and they ehm, make sure I have an interpreter but, ehm, they ask me “how much time do you need for such and so meeting?” But it’s, I have my time for.. not for the individual client, it’s just for.. it’s standardized, so I I say “well, in general I need one and a half hour or two hours for such and so case”, but often ehm, it’s not enough because suddenly immigration service decides that they need a whole day to talk to a person and then you receive very very long interviews which you have to check everything. Then it’s not enough, but I cannot change it, the day before.” (Organisation E) Transpare ncy of resources needed Resource pooling
Collab. Phys. “Look, they don’t get the money of course; [name of other organisation] manages it. And we invoice an amount of three months to [name of other organisation].” (Organisation A) Responsi bility of payment of service Resource pooling:
Collab. Org. “Yes, we often have team days with case managers and then of course we talk about anything and everything and there we exchange a lot of knowledge, so that certainly happens. And sometimes when I don’t know something and my colleagues are not here, I just call a different location, and then I ask a colleague; I don’t know what I should do here, can you help me out here.” (Organisation B) Informati on sharing with external parties Resource pooling
As we identified those mechanisms, we realised that there are there are two ways of evoking changes on resources – internal or external to the organisation. With respect to the first, resources are influenced from within the organisation and unlike the latter do not make use of external parties. Furthermore, we noticed that some mechanisms in- or decrease the level of accessible resources whereas others affect the usage of a set level of resources in terms of efficiency and/or effectiveness. Therefore, we analysed the found mechanisms in terms of their affiliation with these attributes. An overview of the found mechanisms and their categorisation according to the source of mechanism (internal vs external) as well as their effect (efficiency vs effectiveness) is provided in table 7 in the findings section.
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Table 6: Validity and reliability assured for this research derived from Yin (1994)
Validity and reliability Measures Taken
Construct validity: Semi-structured interviews
The key informants review the draft transcriptions Triangulation by using multiple researchers
Internal validity: Pattern matching techniques were used to build explanation from derived data. Data has been transcribed verbatim.
Rival explanations were dealt with by closer examination in case expectations from literature did not match our findings.
External validity: For the constructs in the research setting, existing theory has been used to derive a conceptual model and subsequently the findings have been compared with existing literature.
Reliability: Usage of interview protocol to standardise the interviews (see appendix for research protocol)
Interview transcripts
4. Results
The aim of this research was to find out how organisations can build adaptive capacity within SSCs. By doing so we analysed how resources can be influenced so that they can either be up- or downscaled. The resources in question are physical, human, and organisational resources. Through data reduction and analysis five mechanisms were found, which proved to be impacting different resource types either by changing to a higher, or respectively lower level of accessible resources, or by making the use of resources more efficiently and/ or effectively.
Table 7 provides an overview of all found mechanisms, the types of resources they have an effect on, and their attributes of either being of internal or external nature. The table also indicates whether the mechanisms allow for a more efficient or effective use of the resources. Furthermore, quotes from the transcribed interviews are stated that provide examples of these mechanisms looked like in practice.
Table 7: Overview of the found Mechanisms and their Attributes incl. Quotes from Interview Found mechanism Affected Resource Type Int er n al E xt er na l E ff ici en cy E ff ec ti vene ss
Example quote from conducted interviews
Alternative Usage
Physical X X “‘well, we have a good barrack here, can’t we just let people stay there’” (Organisation F)
Human X X “We use interpreters during that conversation, no official interpreters because they must be paid, and there is not the money for it, so we have people from the target group who have work experience and who speak enough Dutch to be able to translate” (Organisation A)
Organisational X X “’Because the crisis plan is not designed for refugees […]’ ‘Exactly. For floods, or fires or that sort of other catastrophes. Obviously, there are sequences in that plan, who gets activated, who are contact persons, there are telephone numbers of people in charge included. And that was it, that helped us’” (Organisation P)
Acquisition
Physical X X “’That is why here [within the reception centre] new buildings were built?’ ‘Yes, yes.. and that is often for the status holders’” (Organisation B)
Human X X „We work a lot with temporary workers, especially at the registration counters we have temp workers to scale eight, something like that“ (Organisation D)
Organisational X X „When we invented the concentric circle, it’s a bit of a strange word but, all these people were obviously well all in the reception centres…” (Organisation D)
Resource Pooling
Physical X X “The fire department has them [washing tents]. They have that for emergency situations. They provided the washing tents with water from the fire department cars at first and in the following days they created the infrastructure in [name of the location].” (Organisation P)
Human X X “What we do then is act fast. I call the hospital myself, tell them this and that happened; can someone come to help with first aid?” (Organisation F)
Organisational X X “I mean they give weekly updates on crisis’s that are happening all over the world on a very detailed level, […], and they on a monthly basis post five different scenarios of what could happen… ” (Organisation L)
Working
harder Human X X
“’Yes, uhu, okay, suppose you get that information very late, there comes a bus that sort of thing; how do you handle that on the floor?’ ‘Act. That is the strength of the [name of organisation], …, you simply roll up your sleeves and get to work.’ “ (Organisation F)
(In-house) training
4.1. Alternative (flexible) Usage
Throughout the interviews, it has been made clear that having only little specifications on resources helps finding additional ones. This can be observed in all three types of resources. For example, organisation B, L, and P experienced a temporary shortage in accommodation (physical resource) which they overcame by adopting a creative and flexible approach. This approach entailed setting the specifications so low, for example to “just providing basic shelter”, so that the search for housing could be extended to other objects such as tents (organisation B), empty industrial sites (organisation P), or unoccupied buildings (organisation P). So, to say, enhanced flexibility allowed them to choose from a wider pool of accessible resources. “Exactly, gym halls were used as people had to stay there for 72 hours.”, stated the interviewee of organisation F. To the question whether tents are in use to cope with the drastic increase, interviewee of organisation B responded with “yes that as well”.
Looking at human resources, one can see two main ways of using an already existing human resource in a different way than previously intended – by assigning employees for a variety of tasks (e.g. organisation F), or by adopting an adaptable working schedule (e.g. organisation F). The first option, is just like in the case of physical resources, predominately enabled through flexibility. Here, employees and/or volunteers are assigned to tasks according to their competencies. Again, having only little specifications e.g. no special education needed, allows the organisations to find additional help quickly and match e.g. volunteers with a wide range of tasks as this quote about the tasks of volunteers shows: “Really diverse. However, I think one can surely say that every volunteer provides specific inputs…” (Organisation F). However, even though matching tasks with employees can be done quite effectively when the specifications are set low, it sometimes comes along with a trade-off of knowledge and expertise loss. “The downside is that you have to keep the know-how that you have on a certain task, so the experience, you have to find a good balance”, says interviewee of organisation D.
23 contact persons, there are telephone numbers of people in charge included. And that was it, what helped us, because if you have to start looking for responsible people only then, that would turn out to be quite difficult.”, stated interviewee of organisation P. So, instead of creating a whole new plan, they took parts of it and amended the plan according to the requirements that needed to be met.
Given these examples, one can easily see that a high degree of flexibility enables this mechanism. Furthermore, velocity and visibility are, although not obvious at first glance, predeterminations for this mechanism. Especially when time is of essence, hence a low level of velocity is present, organisations tend to make ad-hoc decisions to find a “quick fix”. In case of organisation P this looked like this: “For the first night we used for example the [vacant] tobacco factory”. This, however, is only possible with the knowledge, and hence a high level of visibility, of where and what kind of resource could be accessed within short time. As this mechanism uses existing resources and is subject to no external influences, one can say that the “alternative usage” is an to the organisation internal up- and downscaling mechanism. Figure 5, provides a graphical illustration of how alternative usage is connected with the dependent variables and the resources.
Figure 5: Found Mechanism – Alternative Usage, its Enablers and affected Resources
4.2. Acquisition
24 teachers, and that is a problem in [name of the country]”. Not only are they increasing the quantity of offered courses, they furthermore “fit our integrational education with the perspectives of the refugees. Of the status holder.”.
As the term acquisition indicates sourcing from the market, one can say this is an external up- and downscaling mechanism. Furthermore, a high level of visibility should be given in order to know, where an organisation lacks in resources and where one can acquire additional ones. Next to that, it has been noted that the long period of training new staff requires as high level of velocity. Lastly, this mechanism can be seen as increasing the efficiency of the resources in the long-run. Figure 6 provides a graphical overview.
Figure 6: Found Mechanism – Acquisition, its Enablers and affected Resources
4.3. Resource Pooling
25 the possibility to do an internship in our health division, sort of a voluntary experience.”. In that way, the medical staff gets further assistance and the refugee is provided with a way to integrate himself better into society as his skills and knowledge would have remained unused due to missing recognition of his academic certificates.
When it comes to organisational resource pooling, a big part of the data analysed deals with the obtaining and updating of relevant data within time. This has been regarded as a problem in almost all organisations (e.g. D, F, G, H, P) as information was either not visible, accurate or received at a very late stage so that ad-hoc measures were often the result. The interviewee of organisation E said: “I work together with [name of other organisation] and they supply information about countries they can help assist me in all kinds of ways.”, which shows that this resource pooling of information also provides them with know-how and assistance. Organisation C reported something very similar: “… we call XY and ask, how they see that, just to know whether there are things about which one has to worry about, or do you want to have a quick look at it…”. It has been found that fast and frequent information sharing amongst different parties helps to prepare for upcoming challenges and the earlier organisations find out about new arrivals for example, the better prepared they were in the end.
Throughout the organisations analysed one can say that the mains source of obtaining new skills and knowledge, namely language skills; collaborations with organisations, interpreters, civilians and other asylum seekers or status holders are a common practice. Hence, this constitutes an external up- or downscaling mechanism. Furthermore, the resilience factors velocity and visibility are enablers of this mechanism to effectively upscale resources. Entering collaborations helps to acquire additional resources quicker than obtaining it through internal upscaling or acquiring it from the market through buying/hiring. Visibility is of importance, as it is beneficial to know which resource one can gain through entering a collaboration. Figure 7 provides a graphical representation.
Figure 7: Found Mechanism - Resource Pooling, its Enablers and affected Resources
4.4. Working Harder
26 fact, organisation F was denied to adopt a plan for flexible working hours by a higher institution as they supposedly wanted the employees of organisation F to be more efficient and less time consuming. They further state that when there is a need for it they also “roll up your sleeves and go to work”. Also, the interviewee of organisation E answered the question on how to deal with ever-changing regulations, with: “Ehhm, just working – hard working.” Especially, when there is only little time (low velocity) to respond to the change, this mechanism allows for an upscaling of human resources – even though it lasts only for a limited amount of time. Secondly, a certain level of flexibility must be given, employees must be able increase their utilisation (e.g. through handling more people simultaneously or cut back on breaks). However, working harder cannot be a permanent state of mind so one also has to have an idea (visibility) on when the high increase recedes. Figure 8 provides a graphical depiction of this mechanism.
Figure 8: Found Mechanism - Working Harder, its Enablers and affected Resource
4.5. (In-house) Training
27 organisation O, it shows that internal personnel is educated through internal resources. “So, every year we do some basic things [training] because they really belong to our tasks” (Organisation O). Nevertheless, this mechanism can be seen as an internal and external way to improve the efficiency of human resources. A prerequisite of offering trainings however, is being able to identify the gap between existing capabilities of staff and the ones needed to fulfil tasks (visibility) as well as having sufficient time to fulfil the training. Figure 9 illustrates this mechanism graphically.
Figure 9: Found Mechanism - (In-house) Training, its Enablers and the Resource affected
5. Discussion
The findings from this study suggest that adaptive capacity of organisations operating in SSCs, may be influenced by a range of internal and external up- and downscaling mechanisms enabled through adaptive capacity factors. In total, 5 different mechanisms have been found, which to our knowledge constitute a novelty to existing literature and can be used as guidance for practitioners. Those findings contribute valuable empirical insights into the concept of adaptive capacity from a SSC perspective.
Having combined Hess et al.’s (2012) findings that adaptive capacity consists of a set of resources with the insight that adaptive capacity is closely linked to SC resilience as derived from Ponomarov and Holcomb (2009), we analysed how SC resilience factors (flexibility, velocity, visibility, and collaboration) can impact resources and therefore also adaptive capacity from organisations operating in a SSC. The found mechanisms, alternative usage, acquisition, resource pooling, working harder, and (in-house) training answer our research question on how adaptive capacity can be built in such a setting. The findings are in most parts coherent with existing literature, with only a few contradictions, which will be dealt with in this section.
28 variability only with the small difference that instead of “production process” we talk about “service creation” which is primarily influenced by available resources.
As we look into our findings - the five up- and downscaling mechanism - we found a minor contradiction with the results from Swafford et al. (2008) and our analysis of the mechanism “alternative usage”. There we state that, flexibility, velocity, and visibility enable this mechanism. Swafford et al. (2008) argue that flexibility is an antecedent of agility, which consists of velocity and visibility combined. We, however, did not analyse their interdependencies and simply concluded that they contribute to facilitate “alternative usage”. On the other hand, we compared our findings on “acquisition”, its enablers and effects on resources with existing literature and found that a multitude of sources see acquisitions as a way to increase resources (e.g. Eisenhardt & Martin 2000; Smit et al. 2001) and a mean to overcome uncertainty (e.g. Mentzer et al. 2008).
Our findings also showed that information and knowledge (human resource) which has been pooled through collaboration, does not only influence the human resource itself but furthermore increases the level of visibility. It is therefore estimated, that “resource pooling” for information has the potential of being more influential to resources than pooling of physical resources for example.
For the mechanism of “working harder” we have noticed that this way of increasing efficiency has been implemented whenever there was an urgent need to act quickly, or when there was not enough time to get additional manpower in time. Even though this solution helps in making the work of the employees more efficient, this is not feasible in the long run. This argument is supported by several studies (e.g. Chang et al. 2006) including the one from Tasneem et al. (2004) who concluded that a perceived high stress level has negative effects on performance and on health. Hence is it not feasible to expose employees to high stress situations for an extended time. Unfortunately, our interviews do not provide insights, on how long the “working harder”-work attitude endured, nor whether they were entailed with negative consequences, such as lack in motivation, health issues or even a lower level of efficiency afterwards.
When it comes to the found mechanism of “(in-house) training”, we found our findings supported by literature. Bradaschia & Pereira (2015) found several ways of how flexibility allows SCs to adapt more easily, which resembles adaptive capacity. One of their findings deals explicitly with alteration and creation. As an example, they provide “training of professionals to carry out additional activities not foreseen initially. The composition of different resources can also lead to creation of a new one”, (Bradaschia & Pereira 2015, p.128) which aligns with our findings on “(in-house) training” as well as “acquisition”.
29 enabler of resource pooling. One can therefore derive, that the enablers and mechanisms are interdependent.
6. Conclusion
The findings of this research contribute to the nascent field of adaptive capacity in SSCs by analysing the influential factors and the found mechanisms created by them. Those found mechanisms provide an answer to our research question (see introduction).
We were able to discover five specific underlying mechanisms that facilitate changes, primarily up- and downscaling, of physical, human and organisational resources and which in return influenced the level of adaptive capacity of the organisations in question. These mechanisms were analysed according to their enablers (flexibility, velocity, visibility, and collaboration), the resources they affect, whether they enhance efficiency or effectiveness and lastly, whether they are of internal or external nature of the company in question. As our study is one of the first to analyse adaptive capacity of organisations operating within a SSC, we were able to provide valuable and new insights on adaptive capacity from a service point of view. This allowed us to conclude that there are various ways or mechanisms to influence resources and subsequently also adaptive capacity.
6.1. Managerial Implications
Next to providing new insights on adaptive capacity in SSC literature, this study also provides valuable managerial contributions. Even though in theory it is known that adaptive capacity helps when facing unexpected changes, little details are known whether this concept is known or even deliberately used in practice. With this study, we provide new insights on how adaptive capacity can be built. The findings of this study, therefore, offer managers’ working in SSCs guidance on how they can up- or downscale their resources. For that a range of mechanisms were provided, which can be categorised as internal or external ways of influencing a resource. We determine, for example, that collaboration with other organisations allows for pooling of physical, human and organisational resources and allows organisations to access resources that were otherwise not available. One can say, that a high visibility across the SSC and fast and regular flows of information concerning allow for a better preparation and reaction to drastic changes. At the same time, we found that in practice information was often hard to obtain and received at “last minute”, leaving the organisation of to take ad-hoc measures, which over time were replaced with more efficient and/or effective ways of handling the situation.
30 of them to influence the resources. However, it has been shown that all organisations analysed, exploited the benefits of collaborating with other parties and used it in a way to enrich their portfolio of resources. Our suggestion to managers is therefore, to first realise which resources are needed and then find the most suitable up- and downscaling mechanism. For that they can choose between organisational internal or external mechanisms, whereas for the latter it has been observed that resource pooling (enabled through collaboration) is rather effective.
6.2. Limitations and Research Implications
Despite our best intentions to provide a valid and reliable study, there might be some limitations entailed with this research. Firstly, even though the number of incoming asylum seekers has this year decreased dramatically, allowing some organisations to return to their utilization as it was before 2015, other organisations, especially the ones operating in the long chain with its main focus on integration, still operate at a high level of utilisation or is expected to experience it in future. With the cases being in the same stages of the cycle (e.g. all being in the preparation, reaction or in the normal stage), different mechanisms of up- and downscaling of resources could have been found.
In our research, we selected cases from different parts of the refugee SSC with differing fields of activity ranging from reception organisations, including housing and medical service providers, over refugee assistance and counselling, to public governmental organisations and found some insights on how adaptive capacity can be built on an organisational level. However, from these findings one cannot conclude how entire SSCs build adaptive capacity. Therefore, we would suggest for future research of adaptive capacity from a SC perspective. Furthermore, even though collaboration has been found to be an important and frequently used mechanism, the role of power within those collaborations has not been analysed. It simply has been assumed, that the organisations in focus were the dominant player and are able to reap the benefits of collaborations. Because of that, we would suggest to do further research with cases of different power positions to avoid a bias in the findings.
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7. Acknowledgements
First, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors Kirstin Scholten and Carolien de Blok for their relentless support and feedback throughout the research process. They always motivated me to go one step further and provided me with new streams of thought whenever I was stuck in tunnel vision. Furthermore, I want to thank my friends with whom I went through the ups and downs of writing a thesis. Lastly, I would like to thank all the interviewees for their efforts and time in contributing to this research.
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