Applying Systems Theory to Tourism Supply Chain Risk Management

Supply chain risk management has drawn increasing attention as individual firms no longer compete as isolated entities in the tourism industry. Nevertheless, very few studies have systematically investigated the risks associated with the tourism supply chain. This study uses systems theory to develop a conceptual framework for tourism supply chain risk management. Specifically, it employs a holistic hierarchical approach to identify, prioritize, assess, and manage the potential risks in the tourism supply chain. It proposes that complex tourism supply chain risks can be identified and assessed by analyzing supply chain sub-systems using with structural decomposition. The risks associated with each sub-system contribute to and affect the risks of the overall supply chain system. The research findings suggest that the systems approach can effectively identify and examine the scope and scale of potential risks in the tourism supply chain.