Purpose: This paper aims to propose an empirically grounded governance framework based on complex adaptive systems (CAS) principles to facilitate formation of well-connected regional supply chains that foster economic development, adaptability and resilience of mining regions.Design/methodology/approach: This study is an exploratory case study of the South Australian (SA) mining industry that includes 38 semi-structured interviews with the key stakeholders and structural analysis of the regional supply network (RSN).Findings: Findings demonstrate the applicability of the CAS framework as a structured approach to the governance of the mining industry regional supply chains. In particular, the findings exemplify the relationship between RSN governance, its structure and interconnectivity and their combined impact on the adaptability and resilience of mining regions.Research limitations/implications: The data set analysed in the current study is static. Longitudinal data would permit a deeper insight into the evolution of the RSN structure and connectivity. The validity of the proposed framework could be further strengthened by being applied to other industrial domains and geographical contexts.Practical/implications: The proposed framework offers a novel insight for regional policy-makers striving to create an environment that facilitates the formation of well-integrated regional supply chains in mining regions through more focussed policy and strategies.Originality/value: The proposed framework is one of the first attempts to offer a holistic structured approach to governance of the regional supply chains based on CAS principles. With the current transformative changes in the global mining industry, policy-makers and supply chain practitioners have an urgent need to embrace CAS and network paradigms to remain competitive in the twenty-first century.

Agribusiness supply chain (ASC) risk is currently a major business problem throughout the world. The current trend of globalisation has affected every business, and supply chain risks have become a concern in logistics and other business processes. Current risk management strategies must address a variety of global and local challenges. To tackle this issue, existing research has analysed risks in agrifood supply chains, ASC risk management, disruption in ASCs, risk assessments of agriculture supply chains and sources of risk facing an agricultural supply chain. However, the existing research has not defined and categorised risks as a basis for managing risks in ASCs. Therefore, the definition and categorisation of risks in the ASC has been overlooked. To address this gap, this paper undertakes a systematic literature review, offering constructs to define and categorise risks in ASCs, and develops a novel taxonomy in ASC risks to enrich future research on ASC risk management. Sixty-one articles from six databases published between 2000 and 2020 underwent descriptive and thematic analysis.

Despite widespread recognition that an enterprise’s critical resources may extend beyond the enterprise’s traditional boundaries, with the focal enterprise drawing upon the resources of other firms and institutions through networks, there is a dearth of empirical research on knowledge mobility and appropriability patterns among innovative Australian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the lens of complexity science. We address this gap, by examining what, how, and why innovation-related knowledge flows from networks into SMEs, and how SMEs protect intellectual property (IP) and appropriate value. Based on a survey of 838 SMEs, we find patterns of internal and external knowledge flows with SMEs searching for ideas internally, and via market-based networks, with internally sourced ideas having the strongest impact on innovativeness. The results also show SMEs are most likely to network with market-based agents relative to localised learning networks. Further, networking with suppliers increases innovativeness, as does sourcing knowledge as part of a package with the purchase of new equipment, underscoring the importance of the vertical supply chain network. Despite limited interaction with localised learning networks, outsourcing R&D to these networks increases innovativeness. We also find that informal IP, in particular, secrecy, complexity of product design, and frequent and rapid changes to products/services increases innovativeness, as do formal copyrights and trademarks. In addition to protecting IP, these practices are product market strategies, enabling SMEs to commercialise innovations and appropriate value. But while appropriability mechanisms provide innovation benefits to individual agents, from the perspective of complexity science, IP mechanisms act as barriers to effective knowledge flows (e.g. information sharing) preventing innovative networking through the mechanism of a positive feedback loop to evolve to the state where distributed intelligence comes into play and facilitates break-through innovations.