Geopolitical Risk, Supply Chain Reconfiguration, and Firm Resilience in the Post-Pandemic Economy

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore the connection among geopolitical risk, supply chain reconfiguration, and firm resilience in the post-pandemic economy. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses had to manage health-related issues and the rising geopolitical tension, trade barriers, and fuel crises, as well as sanctions, travel delays, and regional wars. But for many organizations, these pressures increased and led to a rethinking and rethinking of their dependence on global supply chains and to the consideration of new strategies, such as supplier diversification, nearshoring, regional sourcing, inventory buffering, and digital supply chain monitoring. The study examines geopolitical risk's impact on supply chain decisions and how the firm's resilience is affected by supply chain reconfiguration. The results showed that companies that have high geopolitical risk exposure had higher cost increases, longer lead times, and higher frequency of supply disruptions. But those who used flexible sourcing, multiple supplier sources, and digital visibility tools to enhance their supplier visibility were more resilient, more quickly recovered, and less impacted by disruption. The results further confirm that one of the most important factors for firms to minimize vulnerabilities and increase continuity of operations is their reconfiguration of their supply chains. Geopolitical risk is now an important factor in all strategic supply chain management scenarios, and businesses must optimize costs and also consider their resilience, flexibility, and preparedness to deal with geopolitical risk.