Madhavika, N; Bandara, M; Manchanayake, M; Perera, C; Bandara, W; Jayasinghe, P and Ehalapitiya, S (2025) Navigating economic crisis: Factors shaping resilience in Sri Lankan construction SME supply chains. International Journal of Construction Management, 25(11), pp. 1324-1336. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
In today's construction industry, supply chains are subject to much greater disruption than they were in the past, resulting in a greater need for resilience. However, there is a gap in the literature that examines the resilience of construction small and medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) specifically focusing on developing countries. This article is a step towards identifying the factors influencing the resilience of construction SME supply chains taking the case of Sri Lanka: a developing country which is currently amidst a major economic crisis. This research study adopted a mixed-method approach, employing 08 structured interviews with employees ranging from executive level to top level management of 08 construction SMEs followed by a questionnaire survey considering a sample of 195 construction SMEs also with executive level to top level management of each construction SME. The findings indicated that Collaboration, Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), Internal Integration, and Outsourcing have a positive significant impact on the resilience of Sri Lankan construction SMEs' supply chains during an economic crisis, while 'collaboration' and 'EO' are the most influential factors respectively. Therefore, construction SMEs must prioritize and enhance collaboration and EO when devising supply chain strategies to strengthen resilience during economic crises. This paper contributes to filling the research gap by investigating factors influencing construction SME supply chains in a developing country during an economic crisis. Moreover, it contributes to the knowledge by being one of the latest empirical studies focusing on the construction SME supply chains in Sri Lanka. The findings provide a valuable reference for both policymakers and practitioners seeking to improve the resilience of construction SME supply chains.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | collaboration; construction SMEs; economic crisis; entrepreneurial orientation; internal integration; outsourcing; Sri Lanka; supply chain resilience |
| Index terms: | collaboration, influential factor, integration, supply chain resilience, questionnaire, practitioner, strategy, survey, developing country, interview, construction industry, empirical study, executive, Sri Lanka, outsourcing |
| Subjects: | development economics, Geography, research methods, practitioner, supply chain resilience, management, industry analysis, organizational analysis, business, risk assessment, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Organizational Design, International Construction, Procurement, Risk Management, Geographical Context, Supply Chain Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here