Risks in Supply Chain Logistics: Constraints and Opportunities in North-Eastern Nigeria

Introduction

Uncertainty and risk in the supply chain have emerged as a prominent theme in supply chain management. As market rivalry grows increasingly fierce, organizations aspire for operational efficiency to deliver exceptional logistical operations to achieve a significant market share and maintain a competitive edge. Numerous researchers have highlighted that supply chain uncertainties and risks are challenges to achieving operational effectiveness in supply chain and logistics (Govindan, Hunter, & Roh, 2021). Supply-chain vulnerability is the degree to which the supply chain is prone to be affected by a risk occurrence (Heckmann et al., 2015). Supply chains characterized by logistic intricacy are more vulnerable as they are interconnected and diverse (Fiksel et al., 2015; Zhao et al., 2019). The most significant influence on a supply network's robustness and post-disruption service quality is movement complexities (Goldsby & García‐Dastugue, 2003). Disruptions are fundamental problems in logistics risk management, as they endanger logistics personnel' safety, damage products (Miller and Saldanha, 2016), and obstruct effective logistical operations. Hence, productive risk management preserves a broad variety of stakeholders (Miller, 2017) and assists organizations gain a competitive edge.

A volatile and ever-changing environmental dynamic spearheading operations resources and operational efficiency has consistently been a challenging task for strategy makers (Altay & Ramirez, 2010; Hendricks & Singhal, 2005). Uncertainty is defined by researchers working in strategic management and organizational theory as the volatility of environmental variables that influence firm performance or the scarcity of relevant information about these variables (Wang, Wang, & Chan, 2021). The presence of uncertainty in internal and external environmental factors reduces the predictability of company effectiveness and increases the risk (Jha, Sharma, Kumar, & Verma, 2021; Moncef & Monnet Dupuy, 2021). With the upswing of today's conscious consumer, incorporating sustainability into business strategy has become about satisfying shareholders' expectations while also considering the overall implications such activities have on the environment and community (Alora & Barua, 2021).

Since supply chain logistics encompasses the entire process of conveying products from raw material processing to customer delivery, focusing on supply chain risk management is a step toward increasing the adoption and growth of sustainable practices. (Seuring & Müller, 2008; Shokouhyar, Pahlevani, & Mir Mohammad Sadeghi, 2019; Silva, Alves, Dias, & Nascimento, 2019). Logistics plays an essential role in an organization's quest for sustainability because it represents the integrated management of all the activities required to move products through the supply chain (Li, Yan, Zhang, & Yan, 2021). All supply chains are vulnerable to disruptions as unpredictability becomes the new normal for organizations (Hazen, Russo, Confente, & Pellathy, 2021). Examining how organizations have gained from previous disruptions to enhance mitigation measures is essential to reducing recovery time during possible risks or disruptions (Macdonald and Corsi, 2013). In essence, understanding supply chain logistics risk management is important and a top priority for both academics and practitioners.