HOW MANAGERS PERCEIVE AND ASSESS SUPPLY CHAIN RISKS? EMPIRICAL RESULTS FROM A SAMPLE OF EUROPEAN ORGANIZATIONS

The purpose of this article is to investigate the process of supply chain risk assessment as practiced by managers. The study proposes a model of supply chain risk assessment, based on the investigation of how risk owners perceive risk and assessment different risk categories and risk drivers. Finally, the paper explores what risk assessment techniques are used. This research is followed by a preliminary and exploratory empirical investigation. The research shows that supply chain managers generally view risks as under-performance, investigating the relationship between supply chain risks, other risks categories, and the (limited) use of risk drivers in assessing supply chain risks. Finally, we found that qualitative risk assessment methods are more used than quantitative methods. This research contributes the limited literature on empirical testing of supply chain risk management practices. However, this research is exploratory in nature and is based on limited (though diverse) sample from Europe. There is an opportunity to test the model in different countries and with larger sample sizes. There is an opportunity for managers to understand how risk could be leveraged for long term gains in a supply chain context, how to rely on a mix of qualitative and quantitative tools, and understand how different managers assign importance to different types of risk. This is one of the few empirically - driven studies on risk management, specifically on supply chain risks and related risk drivers.