A circular pathway for developing resilience in healthcare during pandemics

In the last few years, the studies on supply chain resilience have increased dramatically also due to the need to face the COVID-19 pandemic. However, although resilience has been studied in many fields, there is still a lack of in-depth understanding of how supply chains can develop resilience in healthcare. To contribute to this research gap, empirical data were gathered from nine fine-grained case studies belonging to the first European country affected by COVID-19, i.e., Italy. Adopting the dynamic capability theory, the research contributes to theory with the conceptualization of the circular pathway and two theoretical propositions that support the understanding of how resilience is developed in healthcare during pandemics. Finally, the paper contributes to practice with the definition of 12 dynamic capabilities and relevant insights about the activities, practices and elements required to develop resilience during disruptive events, like pandemics. These results support practitioners in planning the future development of resilience in healthcare.