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1 Introduction
Every human endeavor involves risk and the success or failure of any venture depends crucially on how we deal with it ([16] Dey and Ogunlana, 2004). The word risk carries different connotations and is generally associated with finance and terms like options, futures, swaps in context of managing risks are commonly used intoday's business parlance. According to [18] Emblemsvåg and Kjølstad (2002) the word "risk" is derived from the early Italian word risicare, which originally meant "to dare." [47] Mitchell (1999) discussed the relationship between objective and subjective risk, and suggested that objective risk must exist in theory. He also concluded that an objective measure of risk is difficult to obtain and all that can be easily measured is the subjective or perceived risk.
An effective program of risk management is an ongoing process of assessment, intervention and fallback planning ([43] McGrew and Bilotta, 2000) and according to [2] Bandyopadhyay et al. (1999) four major components of risk management are:
risk identification;
risk analysis;
risk-reducing measures; and
risk monitoring.
In the global economy along with the risks businesses are also faced with customers harder to generalise and thus managing variety and quantity with least cost ramifications is a challenge. Customer sensitivity is a trait which helps the companies to understand better about their customers and the markets which they serve. But there are no quick fix solutions to build customer sensitive supply chains' and supply chain strategists have found it to be one of the most challenging tasks. Today supply chains are striving to improve upon customer sensitivity dimension by taking advantages of outsourcing and leveraging their partners' capabilities. This endeavor has ramifications in the form of an increase in risk susceptibility as along with their capabilities, partners also bring new risks to the overall supply chain. Thus, organisations have to assess and evolve strategies to manage risks outside their organisational boundaries impacting the overall supply chain. Further contemporary research also recommends that supply chains need to be designed as lean, agile or leagile according to the type of product and the requirements of the markets ([12] Christopher, 2000; [42] Mason-Jones et al. , 2000; [74] van-Hoek et al. , 2001; [13] Christopher et al. , 2004). But a supply chain design...