Network Characteristics and Supply Chain Resilience under Conditions of Risk Propagation

Abstract Inspired by the fact that a combination of network characteristics can describe a network more fully than the network type is able to, especially since some networks do not belong to any one specific type, this research effort investigates the relationship between network characteristics and supply chain resilience. We begin by demonstrating that the investigation of network characteristics can lead to a better understanding of supply chain resilience. We then identify the key network characteristics that best represent network structure in determining resilience. We show that utilizing a reduced list of characteristics yields performance equal to that when using a complete set of characteristics. Based on the results, we summarize key points that can support interpretation of the impact of network characteristics on resilience. We also conduct a case study to illustrate how our approach can be employed to understand resilience.