Author(s)

Tianyu Ding ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ City University of Macau, Macao SAR, China

Corresponding Author

Tianyu Ding

ABSTRACT

Global supply chains, especially within high-tech manufacturing sectors, are confronted with unprecedented volatility. Although digitalization is broadly advocated as an effective instrument for building supply-chain resilience, existing scholarship has not sufficiently theorized the mechanisms through which digital maturity and alert systems interact with organizational resources to foster such resilience. Against this backdrop, this conceptual study constructs a "Digital-First" Supply Chain Resilience Framework. Drawing on Dynamic Capabilities Theory, Information Processing Theory and the Resource-Based View, the paper unpacks the interplay among three core dimensions: digital maturity (covering visibility, intelligence and adaptivity), alert systems (encompassing risk-detection and escalation mechanisms), and organizational slack (including physical, relational, and cognitive slack). Its key theoretical contribution lies in the Slack Transformation Hypothesis: sophisticated digital alert systems allow enterprises to strategically replace physical slack (inventory buffers) with relational slack (supplier partnerships) and cognitive slack (analytical heuristics), thereby fundamentally reshaping the well-established efficiency-resilience trade-off.

KEYWORDS

Supply Chain Resilience; Digital Maturity; Alert Systems; Organizational Slack; Dynamic Capabilities; Automotive Manufacturing

CITE THIS PAPER

Tianyu Ding. "Digital-First" Supply Chain Resilience Framework: Propositions on the Interplay between Digital Maturity, Alert Systems, and Organizational Slack. Industrial Engineering and Innovation Management (2026). Vol. 9, No. 1, 128-137. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/ieim.2026.090115.

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