Enhancing Healthcare Supply Chain Resilience through Digital Public Procurement and Local Medical Manufacturing: A Comparative Analysis with a Focus on Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Healthcare supply chains are increasingly vulnerable to global disruptions, underscoring the need to implement more resilient, adaptable systems. In response, digital public procurement and local medical manufacturing have emerged as vital strategic approaches to strengthen healthcare supply chain resilience. This dissertation examines how these mechanisms foster resilience from the perspective of capability maturity, with an emphasis on Saudi Arabia and comparative analysis against the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The study employs a qualitative, theory-based, and comparative research approach that relies solely on secondary data from academic literature, policy documents, and institutional reports. It uses an integrated framework rooted in the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities theory, and institutional theory to analyse how digital procurement systems, manufacturing depth, and governance structures influence resilience outcomes in healthcare systems. The results show that digital public procurement reliably improves transparency, visibility, and process control. However, it alone does not ensure resilience or strategic independence. Likewise, local medical manufacturing boosts resilience only when it evolves into a well-developed, integrated ecosystem supported by skilled labour, regulatory expertise, and long-term supplier collaboration. Among the case studies, healthcare systems with higher institutional coordination and maturity, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, are more successful at turning digitalisation and localisation into lasting resilience. Saudi Arabia is characterised as a nation undergoing rapid transition. Although digital procurement reforms spearheaded by NUPCO have progressed swiftly within the framework of Vision 2030, the uneven development of manufacturing capabilities, workforce skills, and institutional integration constrains immediate improvements in resilience. The study determines that capability maturity serves as a pivotal mediating mechanism connecting digital public procurement and local medical manufacturing to the strength of the healthcare supply chain. These insights provide significant implications for policymakers aiming to establish resilient healthcare supply systems in Saudi Arabia and similar emerging economies.