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Over the years, supply chain reconfiguration decisions have been solely based on operational risk. Simplification strategies, such as horizontal mergers, and networking strategies, such as risk pooling, are conflicting paradigms that have been shown to improve financial performance of supply partners. The implication of this to disruption risk is not fully known, especially as it concerns information security breach (ISB). Analysts have rated ISB as a huge disruption risk, costing businesses millions of dollars. Using a credible and well-established agent-based simulation approach and statistical analysis, we examine the impact of ISB on the simplification and risk pooling strategies respectively under three different order replenishment systems. The effect of reconfiguring the supply chain is first examined in a non-security breach scenario and then in a breached scenario. We find that reconfiguration has no benefit to a supply chain using a parameter based replenishment policy (option I), in both breach and non-breach situations, but leads to significant advantage when batch ordering model (option II) or a combined batch-and-parameter based ordering policy (option III) is used. We also established that batch ordering system favours the risk pooling strategy whereas a combined batch-and-parameter ordering system favours the simplification counterpart especially when the simplification is at the wholesaler tier. This study has significant implications for supply chain design as well as information security priorities. This is one of the first papers to look at how ISB impacts supply chain configuration and the role of ordering decision context.

In recent years, customized bus (CB) is becoming an innovative model of the public transport system (PTS) in China. This service provides an advanced, timely, personalized, and flexible responses to the demand of the PTS, especially of commuters. Obviously, it could have an impact on public transport (PT) service. For instance, CB services influence the customers' variety-seeking behavior, which results in changes of customer options in different periods. Therefore, customers could be divided into different groups of preference. In this paper, we construct a two-period Hotelling game model by variety-seeking behavior and service level. The results show that, in the first stage, the departure frequency of CB and PT is influenced by variety-seeking behavior and service level. In the second stage, departure frequency is influenced by service level only. Next, although the departure frequency of bus impacts the changes of passenger ratios in different stages, service level appreciably impacts passenger number. From customer surplus and social welfare, we find that adjustment of service level can increase social welfare, which means that CB and PT will reach an optimum effect. The present work can provide a valuable reference to policymakers, practitioners, and others., Highlights • Passengers' changes in different stages were investigated. • The departure frequency, passenger number, and social effects were analyzed. • Operational strategies were proposed. • Interaction between variety-seeking and service investment were studied.

Resilience enables supply chains to reduce their proneness to disruptions and recover faster. Many existing strategies to strengthen the resilience of supply chains are facilitated by the use of digital technology. Blockchain, as one of the promising innovative technologies, enables a transparent, secure, and timely data exchange and automation via smart contracts. In this paper, we discuss the impact of blockchain technology on supply chain risk management and, in particular, on supply chain resilience. We identify potential risk-related blockchain application scenarios and examine their impact on the existing resilience strategies. We explore the impact of the most promising applications with respect to resilience by using an agent-based simulation model of a complex supply network affected by disruptions. The theoretical analysis reveals a promotion of supply chain resilience strategies, especially if smart contracts are used for risk-related collaboration. The simulation study indicates an increase in resilience if the underlying collaboration is based on time-efficient processes: The propagation of disruptions, the network recovery time and total costs can be substantially reduced. However, depending on the duration of the disruption, negative effects can occur if process efficiency is insufficient. From our investigations, we derive insights for managers who are interested in practical implementation., Highlights • Blockchain technology influences identified resilience strategies mostly positively. • Especially collaboration, visibility, agility, and velocity can be strengthened. • Impact of disruptions on a blockchain-coordinated network is tested with simulation. • Reduction of the network's ripple effect and recovery time possible but not guaranteed. • Physical process efficiency and length of disruption have significant influence.