Managing supply chains in times of crisis: a review of literature and insights

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the literature to describe the current practices and research trends in managing supply chains in crisis. This paper also provides directions for future research in supply chain crisis management. Design/methodology/approach – Articles published prior to August 2008 are analyzed and classified. Findings – A unique five‐dimensional framework to classify the literature is provided. The study reveals that there has been extensive research done in this area in recent years. Much of the research is focused on proactive approaches to crisis in supply chains. Management during various internal crises such as supplier bankruptcy or loss of key clients is a new, challenging area that requires further investigation. Research limitations/implications – This paper does not include articles that are not peer‐reviewed. Practical implications – This paper will serve as a guide to supply chain managers who would like to know how crises, disasters, and disruptions in supply chains have been handled in existing academic literature. Originality/value – To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first literature review in the area of managing supply chains during crisis that looks at both SCM and operations research/management science journals. This paper identifies the various methods that have been used to handle crisis situations and provides a framework to classify the literature. Additionally, this paper identifies gaps in the literature that can provide ideas for future research in this area.