Embracing Risk Mitigation Strategies in Pineapple Supply Chain and Its Impact on Supply Chains Performance

Abstract

Aims: This paper empirically investigated the impact of major risk mitigation strategies employed in the pineapple supply chain on the chains’ performance. Study design: A survey method involving the random sampling technique was used in selecting respondents for the study. Place and Duration of Study: The survey was conducted in Ghana between 13th April 2014–18th August 2014. Methodology: The ordinary least squareregression model was employed to analyze the primary data were collected through a survey with a sample of 303 top executives and participants operating in the pineapple supply chain. Results: The analytical results revealed that, not all the five (5) major mitigation strategies, mostly employed in pineapple supply chain significantly improved the performance of the chain. Risk acceptance, as a strategy to mitigate any of the risks studied undermined the performance of the chain. With the exception of acceptance as mitigation strategy, all studied strategies employed to mitigate demand related risk, significantly improved the chains’ performance. The adoption of control and coordination as strategies to mitigate supply and logistics related risk, significantly enhanced the chain’s performance respectively. Even though, none of the strategies embraced to mitigate political and weather related risks, significantly improved the chain’s performance, the used of coordination as a strategy to mitigate policy and regulatory risks, yielded significant improvement of the chain’s performance. With the exemption of avoidance and control mitigation strategies, none of the studied strategies employed to mitigate biological and environmental related risks significantly improved the performance of the chain. Also, the adoption of strategies such as avoidance, control and coordination to mitigate management and operation related risks significantly improved the performance of the chain. By mitigating finance related risk, with strategies such as control and coordination, the performance of the chain significantly improved. Conclusion: Therefore, to improve the pineapple supply chain performance, this study advocates the use of mitigating strategies such as avoidance, control and coordination to mitigate all the risk studied with the exception of political and weather related risk.