The clock is ticking: The role of uncertainty, regulatory focus, and level of risk on supply chain disruption decision making behavior

•We examine how regulatory focus affects supply chain risk decision-making.•We conduct a vignette-based field experiment using the mTurk database to test our hypotheses.•We contribute to this literature by introducing regulatory focus theory to issues related to individual risk decision making.•Our empirical evidence shows that an individual’s promotion focus affects an individual’s risk decision making behavior.•We found that the uncertainty aspect of decision making matters.

Supply chain employees must make decisions on when and how to react to potential and realized supply chain disruptions. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, we examine how an individual’s regulatory focus, level of risk, as well as the uncertainty of the supply chain disruption affect willingness to pursue a new disruption mitigation strategy. Employing a vignette-based field experiment, we present and discuss findings related to supply chain risk decision making. These findings have implications for future behavioral supply chain risk research.