Conceptualising risk distribution for supply chain sustainability

Over the past decade, the concepts of supply chain risk and supply chain risk management (SCRM) have grown in importance. These concepts have become prerequisite to the development of sustainable supply chain. Managing risks effectively in today’s complicated and long supply networks requires well focused efforts as disruption in the supply chain needs to be avoided or at least mitigated. Risk distribution is a risk management strategy which has been used to manage risks in other fields such as finance and law. However, a review of the supply chain literature observed that there is a lack of references related to risk distribution strategy in supply chains. This paper therefore tries to address this significant gap by defining the risk distribution concept, and by positioning risk distribution as part of supply chain strategy. A description of the risk distribution concept in other academic fields as well as an understanding of its characteristics derived from the literature is presented. These characteristics form the main elements of risk distribution that can be applied to supply chain management and enable the supply chain to become more sustainable.