Integrating Sustainability and Resilience in Multinational Supply Chains: Evidence From Post‐COVID‐19 Strategic Adaptation in Singapore

Sustainability and resilience have become central strategic concerns in contemporary supply chains, yet their integration remains insufficiently understood in empirical research. Existing studies show that the relationship between resilience and sustainability is neither uniformly complementary nor uniformly conflictive but depends on the practices and decisions under consideration. This study examines how multinational companies in Singapore integrated sustainability and resilience into their supply chain strategies during and after the COVID‐19 disruption. Drawing on sensemaking as the theoretical lens and an abductive grounded‐theory approach, we conducted in‐depth interviews with senior supply chain professionals from multinational companies operating in Singapore. The findings identify five interrelated strategic domains through which firms redesigned supply chains after disruption: supply chain focus and visibility, inventory and sourcing, collaboration and communication, technology integration, and sustainability orientation. Rather than treating sustainability as a separate concern, managers linked it to supplier configuration, nearshoring and local sourcing decisions, information sharing, technology‐enabled visibility, and longer‐term partnership development. At the same time, the evidence indicates persistent tensions between efficiency and buffering, flexibility and standardization, and short‐term continuity and longer‐term sustainability commitments, consistent with recent work on sustainability–resilience trade‐offs in crisis settings. This study contributes to the emerging literature on sustainable supply chain resilience by showing how managers interpret disruption, navigate complementarities and trade‐offs, and integrate resilience and sustainability within Singapore's highly trade‐dependent and regionally connected multinational supply‐chain environment. It also offers practical insight into how firms can align resilience‐building with broader business and environmental strategies.