Technological, Organizational, and Environmental Drivers of Supply Chain Resilience in a Regional Brown Sugar Industry: Evidence from Qiaojia, China

Abstract

Regional specialty agri-food supply chains face growing risks from production shocks, logistics disruptions, market volatility, and institutional uncertainty, yet evidence on resilience in traditional smallholder-based systems remains limited. Drawing on the technology-organization-environment framework, this study investigates resilience drivers in the Qiaojia brown sugar industry in Yunnan, China. A questionnaire survey of sugarcane growers, processors, distributors, retailers, government-related stakeholders, and other stakeholders yielded 230 valid responses from 248 returns, with an effective response rate of 92.74%. Structural equation modeling examined the effects of digital technology, information sharing, collaboration capability, risk control capability, response capability, and policy and institutional support. The results show acceptable internal consistency, convergent validity, and model fit, with Cronbach’s alpha values ranging from 0.696 to 0.803 and the main fit indices meeting conventional thresholds. All six hypothesized paths were positive and statistically significant. Policy and institutional support had the strongest standardized effect on supply chain resilience (β = 0.303), followed by response capability (β = 0.287), risk control capability (β = 0.266), collaboration capability (β = 0.262), digital technology (β = 0.230), and information sharing (β = 0.187). The findings suggest that resilience depends on the combined development of digital tools, organizational capabilities, and stable institutional support.