Theuns Pelser, Sisi Bande
Abstract
This paper explores the evolution of buyer-supplier collaboration as a critical enabler of supply chain resilience in South Africa’s chemical sector amidst increasing global disruptions. It investigates how collaborative practices have adapted to enhance supply chain flexibility, visibility, and velocity in response to challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions, and logistical bottlenecks. Employing an exploratory qualitative design, the study gathered data through semi-structured interviews with 11 key stakeholders representing diverse roles across supply chain and sales functions. Using thematic analysis, the research identifies emerging patterns and practices that illustrate the dynamic transformation of buyer-supplier relationships. Key themes include the evolution of trust-based engagement models, the adoption of digital communication tools, and joint contingency planning. The study also highlights critical barriers to collaboration, such as misaligned incentives and capability gaps, and proposes strategic solutions to overcome these. Notably, the findings demonstrate that South African organisations have increasingly adopted globally recognised collaborative strategies, supporting their broader applicability in managing disruption. This research contributes to a growing body of supply chain resilience literature by providing empirical evidence from a developing economy context and addressing the gap left by prior studies that have relied primarily on secondary data.