## 4 Research Findings
### Agility Constructs
#### 4.1.3 Supply Chain Agility  
Supply chain agility was the subject of seven published empirical investigations, positioning it as the second most extensively studied agility construct within the healthcare context. Notably, while these studies employed different construct names to refer to this latent variable, they consistently share foundational similarities in their definitions. Researchers often interchangeably refer to supply chain agility as hospital agility, agile practices in the supply chain, healthcare agility, and medical chain agility.  
[PERSON] et al. [34] expounded upon agility as the capacity of supply chains to swiftly respond to market fluctuations and customer demands. Similarly, [PERSON] et al. [38] asserted that supply chain agility entails vigilance and rapid responsiveness. This involves practices like comprehensive information sharing among all stakeholders, enabling them to anticipate, identify, and exploit market opportunities. Given the imperative to address critical patient needs and intricate processes, the adoption of agile practices is strongly advocated within hospital supply chains [38; 50].  
[PERSON] [50] offered a definition of healthcare agility as the capacity of healthcare supply chains to enhance the flow of patients through healthcare supply chains by delivering customized healthcare services rapidly. Five fundamental antecedents associated with supply chain agility encompass alertness, accessibility, decisiveness, swiftness, and flexibility [50]. Additionally, healthcare agility has been characterized by the ability to concurrently excel in operational capabilities, encompassing quality, delivery, flexibility, and cost management, all orchestrated in a coordinated manner [45]. [PERSON] et al. [45] further underscored that healthcare agility can be gauged by an organization's ability to promptly address patient needs and provide healthcare services during periods of market turbulence, even in the face of limited resources such as medical staff, instruments, and medications. This underscores the importance of supply chain considerations and the advantages of adopting the Internet of Things. Lastly, [PERSON] and [PERSON] [59] emphasized the significance of human capital in nurturing supply chain agility, a notion previously supported by [PERSON] [50].  
[PERSON] et al. [25] also introduced the concept of medical chain agility, defining it as the dynamic capability of healthcare supply chains to respond to changes in patients' treatment needs and provide rapid responses. Consequently, the construct of medical chain agility pertains to the capacity to deliver necessary healthcare services to patients promptly [25].  
Despite supply chain agility being the second most extensively examined construct in the literature, it exhibits a broader array of terminology compared to organizational agility. Curiously, none of the articles explicitly identify the latent variable in their model as supply chain agility, although their foundational concepts and construct definitions draw from the supply chain agility literature [47]. This divergence underscores the absence of a consensus regarding this construct, thereby highlighting an opportunity for strengthening this latent variable. Building upon earlier definitions and within the context of healthcare, we propose the following definition for the supply chain agility construct: the capacity of supply chain members to adeptly sense and promptly respond to shifts within the healthcare industry and evolving patient needs.