Abstract
This study introduces the concept of buyer-supplier resilience fit—the degree of alignment between a buyer's and its key supplier's supply chain resilience—and examines its effect on buyer financial performance. Grounded in strategic fit theory, buyer-supplier resilience fit is conceptualized as a dyadic alignment mechanism whose performance value depends on commensurate resilience levels across interdependent partners. The hypotheses are tested using survey data collected from multiple senior managers across 160 buyer-supplier dyads. After calculating the resilience fit, the analysis applies data scaling and logarithmic transformations and uses seven machine-learning regression models to compare alternative specifications before estimating the final ordinary least squares model. The results show that buyer-supplier resilience fit is positively associated with buyer financial performance. The moderating effect of buyer relational capability on this relationship is negative and marginal, whereas that of buyer product complexity is not statistically significant. Our study extends prior research by examining resilience from both buyer and supplier perspectives and introducing the concept of buyer-supplier resilience fit.
•Buyer financial performance improves not with “more resilience” alone, but when buyers and key suppliers are aligned in resilience.•Using a custom fit index and data from 160 matched buyer–supplier dyads, we distinguish high–high from low–low and misfit resilience configurations.•Buyers paired with over- or under-resilient key suppliers risk cost pass-throughs and bottlenecks, even when their own SCR is high.•High buyer relational capability actually weakens the marginal performance benefits of resilience fit, revealing a hidden downside of deeply embedded ties.•Machine learning–guided transformations and OLS show resilience fit, product complexity, and relational capability jointly explain around two-thirds of buyer performance variance.