Sourcing Under Pressure: A Case Study on Supplier Decision-Making under Geopolitical Uncertainty

Sammanfattning

Global sourcing increasingly takes place in a politically unstable environment where supplier relationships are shaped by traditional factors like cost and operational performance, but also by geopolitical uncertainty. While existing literature has examined broad supply chain responses to geopolitical disruption, limited attention has been given to how sourcing professionals reason and respond at the level of individual supplier relationships. This study addresses that gap by examining how sourcing professionals navigate supplier relationships under geopolitical uncertainty and what drives their responses. A qualitative abductive case study design was adopted, drawing on nine semi-structured interviews with sourcing professionals across European-based firms with global supplier bases. Resource Dependence Theory served as the theoretical lens, enabling analysis of how supplier decisions are shaped by dependency, legitimacy, stakeholder pressure, and constraints on managerial discretion. The findings demonstrate that geopolitical uncertainty leads to sourcing professionals navigating five distinct responses: staying by choice, switching under pressure, staying by constraint, implementing proactive measures and turning disruption into strategic opportunity. These responses are not mutually exclusive and are shaped by the interrelation of resource dependence, external pressures, operational requirements and the availability of viable alternatives. A notable finding is the identification of an ambidextrous positioning strategy, in which geopolitical polarization was actively leveraged as a source of competitive advantage by maintaining legitimacy across competing geopolitical blocs. This study contributes to research by advancing understanding of how geopolitical uncertainty is translated into managerial reasoning and relationship-specific sourcing decisions. This shifts the analytical attention from structural reconfiguration to the decision-making process itself.