Stakeholder Requirements for Supply Chain Viability: A Vector-Based Consideration of Efficiency, Resilience, and Sustainability

The concept of supply chain viability (SCV) has evolved into a thriving research area within supply chain management. SCV has largely been theorized from the narrow perspective of survival amid long-term crises. In this paper, we argue that organizations must balance the requirements of all stakeholders to achieve SCV. Based on a semi-systematic literature review and eight expert interviews, we have identified 26 overarching stakeholder requirements across the three SCV performance dimensions of efficiency, resilience, and sustainability. We found that the requirements diverge in content and priority across stakeholder groups. This divergence results in either paradoxical tensions or synergies. We subsequently introduce a vector-based model to analyze and compare the requirements systematically and present two research propositions. First, each identified stakeholder requirement influences efficiency, resilience, and sustainability simultaneously, albeit to varying degrees. Second, the aggregated direction and dispersion of all stakeholder requirements determine the priorities for the strategic development of SCV. This paper contributes to theory by introducing a stakeholder-focused approach to the systems-theoretical conceptualization that has dominated SCV research to date. For practitioners, the model provides a method for anticipating trade-offs and synergies, which can be used to prioritize future SCV practices.