ABSTRACT
Aside from various economic crises faced by different countries are different time, the countries, and sometimes the world as a whole, have faced serious pandemics such as Spanish Flu, Ebola, bubonic plague and the recent COVID 19, among others. In order to boost the economy, the government tends to introduce different stimulus, relief and financial packages in favour of the citizens of its country. The government is inclined to follow the Keynesian model as it focuses on increasing the demand of consumers. It is the need of the hour to realise the importance of health care for the growth and development of the economy as it has been observed that countries where the economic impact of the crisis is huge and prolonged, also suffer from a great impact on healthcare services. The following study concludes, after both theoretical and empirical analysis, that health expenditure plays a major role in increasing global GDP. Thus, the government should focus on increasing expenditures on health during any crisis. This reduces the amount of income spent by consumers on health care and provides them with security. Further, workers' efficiency increases at a great rate, as does their life expectancy. Higher efficiency is associated with higher output and thus higher growth. © 2022 Thailand and the World Economy. All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
The Government of India has started the distribution of the Covishield and Covaxin vaccines across all the comprising states. In developing states like Bihar, the vaccine supply chain (VSC) is likely to face many challenges due to poor health infrastructure, multidimensional poverty, and poor literacy. Supply chain practitioners are experimenting with available technologies to deal with supply, demand, and behavioral challenges. The present research work seeks to inspect the potential impact of Internet of Things (IoT) on the performance of the VSC. This study draws literature on the impact of IoT on product management, demand management, supply management, social behavior, and government rules and regulations to develop and test the conceptual model in Bihar. Consequently, the study administrated a survey and used structural equation modeling to investigate the proposed hypothesis. The analysis illustrates the positive influence of IoT adoption on the performance of the VSC in distributing the COVID vaccine. The finding also shows the positive relationship between product, supply, demand, and social behavior in IoT adoption. Analysis displays that Indian politicians can substantially impact vaccine distribution because they have influence and awareness of their local districts. This research work has a significant theoretical and managerial contribution for government and practitioners, supporting regulatory officials and policymakers in improving vaccine distribution.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic created heavy pressure on firms, by increasing the challenges and disruptions that they have to deal with on being sustainable. For this purpose, it is aimed to reveal the role of the smart circular supply chain (SCSC) and its enablers towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for post-pandemic preparedness. Design/methodology/approach: Total interpretive structural modelling and Matrice d'Impacts Croises Multipication Applique' a un Classement (MICMAC) have been applied to analyse the SCSC enablers which are supported by the natural-based resource view in Turkey's food industry. In this context, industry experts working in the food supply chain (meat sector) and academics came together to interpret the result and discuss the enablers that the supply chain experienced during the pandemic for creating a realistic framework for post-pandemic preparedness. Findings: The results of this study show that “governmental support” and “top management involvement” are the enablers that have the most driving power on other enablers, however, none of them depend on any other enablers. Originality/value: The identification of the impact and role of enablers in achieving SDGs by combining smart and circular capabilities in the supply chain for the post-pandemic. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: This paper aims to develop supply chain strategies for the fashion retail supply chain (FRSC), likely to be disrupted by the current pandemic (COVID-19) under physical and online retail stores. The resilient retail supply chain design is proposed under budget allocation and merchandise capacity constraints. Design/methodology/approach: This paper utilises the theory of constraint (ToC) and goal programming (GP) to address the COVID-19 impact on FRSC. The budgetary and capacity constraints are formulated with a constraint optimisation model and tested with six different priorities to deal with the physical and online stores. Next, all priorities are developed under different FRSC business scenarios. The ToC-GP-based optimisation model is validated with one of the Indian fashion retail supply chains. Findings: The proposed optimisation model presents the optimal retailing strategies for selling fashion goods over physical and online platforms. The multiple scenarios are presented for developing trade-offs among different strategies to maximise the retailer's merchandise performance. This paper also highlighted the strategic movement from high merchandise density stores to low merchandise density stores. This implies a reduction of sales targets and aspiration levels of both online and physical fashion stores. Research limitations/implications: The proposed model is validated with one of the fashion retailers in India. Other nations or multiple fashion retailers might be considered for more generalisation of findings in the future. Practical implications: This research helps fashion retail supply chain managers deal with consumer demand uncertainty over physical and online stores in pandemic times. Limitation: Other nations or multiple fashion retailers might be considered for more generalisation of findings in the future. Originality/value: This is the first study that considered the impact of COVID-19 on the retail fashion supply chain. The effect of physical and online platforms is mainly discussed from consumer marketing perspectives, but an inventory and resilience perspective is missing in earlier studies. The role of merchandise planning is highlighted in this study. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Due to the rapid surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in India, the health-care supply chain (HCSC) disruptions and uncertainties have increased manifold posing severe challenges to health-care facilities and significantly hampering the functioning of the health industry. This study aims to propose a hierarchical structural model of enablers of HCSC in the COVID-19 outbreak and identifies inter-relationships among them in the health-care market. Design/methodology/approach: Enablers of emergency HCSC have been identified through extensive literature review and experts’ opinions. Subsequently, total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) and cross-impact matrix-multiplication (MICMAC) analysis have been implemented to determine the hierarchical inter-relationships among enablers and classify them according to their contribution to the overall system. Findings: The research has identified and validated 15 enablers of the emergency supply chain in health-care businesses. The study resulted in a seven-level hierarchical structural model based on enabler’s driving and dependence powers. Further, the application of MICMAC analysis resulted in the classification of enablers into four groups, namely, autonomous, dependent, linkage and independent group. Research limitations/implications: This study would help health professionals, policymakers and academia to implement the theoretical model constructed to alleviate the effect of COVID-19 by improving the HCSC performances in pandemic situations. This study has social and economic implications in terms of cost-effective and efficient delivery of care services in health emergencies. Originality/value: The proposed theoretical model constructed is a new effort addressing the issues of HCSC in the COVID-19 crisis. Procedural implementation of TISM and MICMAC analysis in this study would help researchers to grasp concepts in a very lucid manner. The present study is one of the very few studies analyzing enablers in pandemic situations by implementing the TISM approach. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
Food Supply Chains (FSCs) are among the essential services in a pandemic. Perishable food supply chains (PFSC) perform under higher risks as they struggle against greater wastage and product life cycle issues along with the logistics, operational, financial, and health risks during the COVID-19 pandemic. While facing these contingencies, it is essential to formulate strategies in real-time. In this paper, we identify and analyze risk mitigation strategies for PFSC during the current pandemic. We have initially discussed the uncertainties and risks related to pandemic situations and subsequently identified risk mitigation strategies to manage PFSC in such situations. We prioritized the identified strategies using the fuzzy-best worst methodology (F-BWM). The BWM is a highly effective decision-making method with higher consistency. The fuzzy extension to the best worst method (BWM) helps in incorporating vagueness and fuzziness in the decision. As a result, F-BWM is an excellent approach to analyze risk mitigation strategies as the business contingencies in PFSC during this pandemic are unique, with the industry having only a few clear ideas about how best to mitigate them. Among the risk mitigation strategies, “collaborative management,” “proactive business continuity planning,” and “financial sustainability” are the top risk mitigating strategies. Other identified strategies are also extremely useful for varied environmental contingencies. Thus, this research has been underpinned by the contingency theory and discusses all mitigation strategies concerning the socioeconomic contingencies originating from COVID-19. This research is a novel effort in identifying and analyzing the risk mitigation strategies for enhancing the socioeconomic-ecological performance of PFSCs in meeting the sustainable development goal of healthy and safe food for everyone. © 2021