Supply Chain configurations to manage dependence over Critical Raw Materials: a Resource Dependence perspective

Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) are of pivotal importance for the green energy transition, and their demand is generally forecasted to hugely increase over the next decades. The European panorama for CRMs is threatened by the structural dependence over third countries to supply nearly all these materials. However, in the past few years institutional arrangements have been made to start coping with this issue and ensure European resilience over CRMs. In this context, European bu sinesses see great opportunities to grow or start operating in the field, but at the same time they face an environment characterized by huge external dependencies and power relations at the supply chain level that greatly influence competitiveness. We decided to explore how companies ca n position in their chains and which strategies they should put into action to manage dependencies over CRMs. Though a multiple case study methodology, we collected in depth insights from seven cases belonging to the European Rare Earths Elements industry, regarding their supply chain positioning, strategies, relationships with downstream and upstream actors. Drawing on the Resource Dependence Theory (RDT), we show how the three leverages of the RDT (Importance of the Resource, Supplier Substitutability, Di scretion over the Resource) could be used by companies occupying different supply chain positionings to answer to the CRMs supply chain management problem in a long term sustainable way. We then provide a matrix that graphically synthetizes the supply chai n positionings and their actionable leverages. This paper contributes to the development of the RDT at a supply chain level and guides practitioners in the CRMs field in the strategic configuration of their chains.