Adapting the New Procurement Strategies in the Face of Disruption:How organizational ambidexterity enhanced the SCRES during Covid-19?

Abstract: Background: Organizations have established risk management strategies to prevent disruptions; nevertheless, the disruptions created by Covid-19 proved that existing risk management procedures are insufficient to absorb that kind of disruption. As these supply chain activities were mainly scattered across a limited geographical region, they substantially impacted businesses' procurement operations. As the number of disruptions grows and risk-management strategies may not be capable of responding to every type of disruption, the ability to constantly adapt to changing environments has become critical to overcoming disruptions.   Purpose: This research aimed to investigate how the ambidextrous capability of an manufacturing organization can leverage changes in procurement strategies to enhance supply chain resilience in the time of Covid-19. Initially, the researcher identified the changes in the procurement strategies, then presented the role of ambidexterity in times of high-level disruptions.   Method:  A qualitative multiple case study design of seven organizations affected by the disruptions caused by Covid-19. Ten professionals handling procurement tasks in Turkey and Europe manufacturers participated in semi-structured interviews. Primary data is analyzed by content analysis and literature used to support the study.   Conclusion: The empirical data showed that the ambidexterity ability of the organizations enhanced the organizations' supply chain resilience. Furthermore, even though the level of exploration and exploitation was shifting throughout the process, organizations needed to maintain both capabilities simultaneously to overcome the high-level disruptions. The changes in the procurement strategies are mainly adopted as temporary solutions. However, organizations adopt some of these strategies permanently depending on the performance and cost-benefit.