Through what kind of measures do pharma companies in Belgium improve supply chain resilience?
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- Thought process This thesis investigates the measures through which pharmaceutical companies operating in Belgium improve the resilience of their supply chain. Building on the four-capability framework of Faggioni et al. (2023) and the Reinforce/Reconceive logic of Kamp et al. (2020), it addresses the descriptive question of how resilience is actually produced in practice. The research follows the practice-oriented descriptive design proposed by Dul and Hak (2008) and adopts a comparative case study covering four Belgian pharmaceutical actors: GSK Vaccines, Quality Assistance, Johnson & Johnson and UCB. Interviews conducted with the first three cases are coded in Taguette against a two-level scheme; the UCB case is reconstructed through desk research based on public annual and sustainability reports. The cross-comparative analysis identifies a universally shared core of practices, a set of measures characteristic of large manufacturers but limited in the CRO case, and a substantial layer of emergent practices not captured by the reviewed literature. Two contributions stand out: the pharma-specific regulatory constraint acts as both a slowdown and a structuring force, and adaptation in pharma proceeds through continuous improvement sustained year after year rather than through large one-off investments.