Impacts of Industry 5.0 in Supply Chain Flow in Post COVID-19 Era: Moderating Role of Senior Leadership Support

Industry 5.0 involves human and machines reunion by working together to improve the efficiency of service and production process. Industry 5.0 helps to create platforms for better value cocreation and open business models. Such open business model supports in integrating organizational competencies and customers’ preferences along with ensuring better services to meet the challenging needs of the tomorrows’ business world. It is an upcoming field of research and not many studies are available to understand the consequences of Industry 5.0 in the context of ambidexterity and absorptive capacity of the organization, especially from supply chain flow perspective in post COVID-19 period. Also, not many studies are available which have investigated the role of senior leadership support to facilitate adoption of industry 5.0 and sustainability of supply chain management process in the post COVID-19 period. With the support of absorptive capacity theory and existing literature, a conceptual model has been developed which was later validated using PLS-SEM technique considering 378 respondents from different industries. The study found that there is a significant impact of absorptive capacity of the organization towards successfully using industry 5.0 related technologies which in turn positively and significantly influence sustenance of supply chain flow in post COVID-19 period. The study also found that senior leadership support is necessary to successfully adopt and use industry 5.0 for sustaining supply chain flow in the post COVID-19 period.