Managing global supply chains during a crisis: exploring the drivers of relational agility and relationship identity

This research investigates how global supply chain partners’ perceptions and behaviours evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic and how these shifts shaped relational agility and relationship identity. Adopting an abductive, exploratory design, the study draws on in-depth interviews with managers from 18 internationally connected firms. The findings identify relational agility as a dynamic inter-organisational capability comprising enhanced communication, heightened awareness of partner changes, and increased adaptability. These dimensions create the relational conditions through which firms engage in five identity work approaches: discursive, dramaturgical, symbolic, psychodynamic, and socio-cognitive, contributing to relationship identity development during crises. By integrating relational agility with identity work, the study demonstrates how adaptive relational practices enable identity work and relationship identity development during disruption. The research contributes by advancing relational agility as a distinct capability, extending identity work theory to inter-organisational supply chain contexts, and explaining how relational agility and identity work shape supply chain relationships during crises.