Paradox cognition and supply chain resilience: do organizational ambidexterity and organizational slack matter?

Since a resilient supply chain needs to balance stability and flexibility, paradox cognition is critical for improving supply chain resilience. However, the role of paradox cognition has remained largely understudied, leaving the underlying mechanisms of such effects unclear. Our study explores how paradox cognition affects proactive and reactive supply chain resilience via organisational ambidexterity, and the moderating roles of organisational slack (i.e. unabsorbed and absorbed slack). Using survey data from 278 firms in China, the results reveal that paradox cognition enhances supply chain resilience. Organisational ambidexterity mediates the impact of paradox cognition on supply chain resilience. In addition, unabsorbed slack alleviates the positive effect of paradox cognition on organisational ambidexterity, while the moderating effect of absorbed slack is insignificant. This study contributes to the existing research on supply chain resilience from a paradox lens and provides novel insights into transforming the benefits of paradox cognition to reinforce supply chain resilience.