Navigating scarcity: sustainable supply network archetypes for water stress

Purpose This study examines how firms configure sustainable supply networks (SNs) under water scarcity. It explains how water dependence shapes capability-configuration bundles and introduces transformational capability as the capacity to orchestrate capabilities for architecture-level redesign of SNs. Design/methodology/approach An abductive multiple-case study compares 13 multinational manufacturers across four sectors. Evidence from 23 interviews, site observations and secondary sources was analysed using Gioia-inspired coding and cross-case pattern matching. Findings Three contingent sustainable SN archetypes emerge: (1) “Stable”, (2) “Continuous Improvement”; and (3) “Progressive”. They differ in the scope of water dependence, the breadth of capabilities and the scope for reconfiguration. Static capabilities support routine monitoring and efficiency; dynamic capabilities renew existing processes and relationships; transformational capabilities orchestrate combinations of the five capability clusters to alter product and material choices, sourcing, governance, location, infrastructure or network structure. This is most evident in the “Progressive Sustainable SN” archetype. Research limitations/implications The qualitative study focuses on multinational manufacturers. Future research in other sectors, such as energy, should test the archetypes and transitions across smaller firms, services and other contexts of natural resource scarcity. Practical implications Managers can diagnose water dependence, distinguish incremental adaptation from transformational reconfiguration and align capability investments with changes across operations, sourcing, products, governance and network design. Social implications The developed framework can inform decisions on industrial location, catchment stewardship and shared water resilience. Originality/value The study advances a contingency-informed SN configuration perspective through a nested framework of sustainable SN archetypes. The archetypes are theorised as distinct configuration–capability combinations rather than as descriptive groupings of known adaptation practices. It establishes transformational capability as a distinct sustainable SN capability, rather than a synonym for dynamic capability, and explains when capabilities trigger architecture-level redesign under water scarcity.