Supply Chains under Security Threat: The First National Exploratory Study in Mexico

Contemporary prosperity depends on effective and secure supply chain networks that support economic competitiveness. Disruptions in global supply chains would have critical consequences on economies. The lack of technical studies and quantitative data concerning security that affects supply chain operations in Latin America, motivated to develop an exploratory study. Considering the complexity of the question studied, this paper details a set of case studies that explore, from a qualitative research approach, to what extent fulfilling security international standards now necessary to access mature markets such as the U.S and Canada allows export companies located in emerging countries as Mexico to face effectively the different types and levels of local risk. These results should help both academics and practitioners to more readily understand, first, the key logistics components now taken into account when improving security in export-oriented supply chains is required, and second, decision-makers' perspectives regarding supply chain security standards (SCSS) available on the market. A discussion of results is exposed and finally, discussion and future research are presented.