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Pandemic outbreaks can disrupt firms' normal operations, so they demand a resilient response. Firms can combine social responsibility initiatives with resilient responses by reconfiguring their production resources for pandemic relief. It remains unclear, however, whether pandemic-relieving product adaptation (in short, PRPA) improves financial performance. We draw on stakeholder theory to analyze the effect of a PRPA strategy on the stock returns of US-listed manufacturing firms during the COVID-19 pandemic—the most enduring and large-scale pandemic in recent history. The results reveal that the stock market reacts more positively to PRPA under severe pandemic circumstances and for firms with low political connectedness, low media coverage, and/or more unique production technology. The findings offer important implications for operations theory and practice. © 2023 Decision Sciences Institute.
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PurposeThis study examines the performance effect of working capital for a large sample of Indian manufacturing firms in light of supply chain disruption, i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on secondary data collected from the Prowess database on Indian manufacturing firms listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 500. Panel data regression analyses are used to estimate all models. Moreover, this study has employed robust standard errors to consider for heteroscedasticity concerns.FindingsThe results challenge the current notion of working capital investment and reveal that higher working capital has a positive and significant impact on firm performance. Further, it highlights that Indian manufacturing firms suffered financially post-COVID-19 as they significantly lack the working capital to run day-to-day operations.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the scant literature by examining the association between working capital financing and firm performance in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, representing typical developing economies like India.
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PurposeDigital transformation in supply chains (SCs) has emerged as one of the most effective ways to minimize SC disruption risks. Given the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global SCs, this study aims to identify and provide empirical evidence about the drivers of digital SC transformation, considering the interactivity between environmental dynamism, technology, and organizational capabilities during the pandemic era.Design/methodology/approachUsing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), this study examines 923 firms in Vietnam to ascertain the drivers of digital SC transformation between small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises, based on the technology–organization–environment (TOE) as an overarching framework.FindingsThis study finds that greater digital SC transformation adoption could be achieved under the interactivity between the TOE components of firms' technological competencies, learning capabilities, and disruptions in socioeconomic environments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, a multigroup analysis shows that the drivers of digital SC transformation differ between SMEs and large enterprises. SMEs were found to be more motivated by the COVID-19 disruption risk when adopting digital SC models.Originality/valueThis study represents an original and novel contribution from Vietnam as an emerging market to the literature on the impact of COVID-19 on the global value chain. Apart from the unique dataset at the firm level, the analysis of interactions between external and internal drivers of digital SC transformation could provide crucial managerial implications for SMEs to survive major disruptions, such as those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The speed of recovery from supply chain disruption has been identified as the predominant factor in building a resilient supply chain. However, COVID-19 as an example of an evolving crisis may challenge this assumption. Infection risk concerns may influence production resumption decision-making because any incidents of infection may lead to further shutdowns of production lines and undermine firms' long-term cash flows. Sampling 244 production resumption announcements by Chinese manufacturers in the early COVID-19 crisis (February-March 2020), our analysis shows that, generally, investors react positively to production resumptions. However, investors perceived the earlier production resumptions were higher risk (indicated by declined stock price). Such concerns were exacerbated by more locally confirmed cases of COVID-19 but were less salient for manufacturers with high debts (liquidity pressure). This study calls for a reassessment of the current disruption management mindset in response to new evolving crises (e.g., COVID-19) and provides theoretical, practical, and policy implications for building resilient supply chains.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyday life in societies around the world. One of the most severe consequences has been the social isolation imposed by this extremely contagious disease. In this context, many people began looking for a pet for the first time. In Brazil, for instance, the pet sector increased its financial returns in 2020. In addition, companies that produce pet foods have experienced problems with the supply of materials. Supply chain disruption is a problem faced by many different organizations during this time of crisis. This study, therefore, investigated the supply of raw materials stored in the silos and tanks of a large company. This company have operations in 80 countries across the world and produces different products, including pet food. Thirteen raw materials used to produce pet food were con-sidered. In addition, eight criteria of the company's supply process were identified and explored. Moreover, the Flexible and Interactive Tradeoff (FITradeoff) method, which is a Multiple Criteria Decision Mak-ing/Aiding (MCDM/A) method, was applied to rank the raw materials based on supply difficulty. In terms of supply criticality, the order of materials was established from less critical to most critical. These results can be used by companies to better plan the receipt of these materials to reduce the risk of supply chain-related disruptions and propose better ways to distribute activities between planners to help them in their daily management. © 2023 Brazilian Operations Research Society.
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Purpose: This study examines the firm-level financial consequences caused by supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 and explores how firms' supply chain diversification strategies, including diversified suppliers, customers and products, moderate the negative effect on firm performance. Design/methodology/approach: Based on data drawn from 222 publicly traded firms in China, the authors use event study methodology to estimate the effects of supply chain disruptions on the financial performance of affected firms. Regression analyses are conducted to examine the moderating effects of supply chain diversification. Findings: Firms affected by supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 experienced a significant decline in shareholder value in two weeks and a subsequent decrease in operating performance in one year. Diversified suppliers, customers and products act as shock absorbers to alleviate the negative effects. Further regression shows a substitution effect between customer and product diversification. Cross-industry comparisons reveal that service firms experienced more loss than manufacturing firms. Customer diversification mitigates the adverse effects of supply chain disruptions for both manufacturing and service firms. Supplier diversification exerts a noteworthy role in manufacturing firms, while product diversification is beneficial for service firms. Originality/value: The study provides empirical evidence on the magnitude of financial consequences of supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 in both the short term and long term and enriches the current understanding of how to build resilience from the supply chain diversification perspective. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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Building an effective resilient supply chain system (RSCS) is critical and necessary to reduce the risk of supply chain disruptions in unexpected scenarios such as COVID-19 pandemic and trade wars. To overcome the impact of insufficient raw material supply on the supply chain in mass disruption scenarios, this study proposes a novel RSCS considering product design changes (PDC). An RSCS domain model is first developed from the perspective of PDC based on a general conceptual framework, i.e., function-context-behavior-principle-state-structure (FCBPSS), which can portray complex systems under unpredictable situations. Specifically, the interaction among the structure, state and behavior of the infrastructure system and substance system is captured, and then a quantitative analysis of the change impact process is presented to evaluate the resilience of both the product and supply chain. Next, a case study is conducted to demonstrate the PDC strategy and to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the RSCS domain model. The results show that the restructured RSCS based on the proposed strategy and model can remedy the huge losses caused by the unavailability of raw materials.
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Supply chains have been severely disrupted globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper examined the strategic responses of automobile firms for meeting supply chain challenges they face post-pandemic. Data were collected using a specifically designed structured questionnaire from supply chain experts working with leading automobile manufacturing firms in India. The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP), as a part of a multi-criteria decision-making model using R programming, was applied to identify and rank the choice of supply strategies using various criteria, such as lead time, logistics cost (holding cost, carrying cost, warehousing cost, handling cost), and the need of products. Two-wheeler and four-wheeler manufacturing firms were selected for the study. Logistics cost was found to be a dominant criterion, followed by a demand for products and lead time, which helped select an appropriate supply chain strategy. Buffering was observed to be the best strategic choice, and automation and robotics applications were the least preferred ones both for two-wheelers and four-wheeler manufacturing companies. The findings would be helpful to both practitioners and researchers in evaluating diverse strategic choices, especially under the risk and disruptions faced by business firms in the supply chain. © 2023, Associated Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd.. All rights reserved.
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PurposeThis study aims to analyse the nature and trends in the knowledge discovery process on COVID-19 and food insecurity using a comprehensive bibliometric analysis based on the indexing literature in the Scopus database.Design/methodology/approachData were extracted from Scopus using the keywords COVID-19 and food security to ensure extensive coverage. A total of 840 research papers on COVID-19 and food security were analysed using VOSviewer and RStudio software.FindingsThe findings of the bibliometric analysis in terms of mapping of scientific research across countries and co-occurrence of research keywords provide the trends in research focus and future directions for food insecurity research during times of uncertainty. Based on this analysis, the focus of scientific research has been categorised as COVID-19 and food supply resilience, COVID-19 and food security, COVID-19 and public health, COVID-19 and nutrition, COVID-19 and mental health and depression, COVID-19 and migration and COVID-19 and social distancing. A thematic map was created to identify future research on COVID-19 and food security.Practical implicationsThis analysis identifies potential research areas such as food supply and production, nutrition and health that may help set future research agendas and devise policy supports for better managing food insecurity during uncertainty.Originality/valueThis analysis provides epistemological underpinnings for knowledge generation and acquisition on COVID-19 and food insecurity.
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The COVID-19 pandemic made it clear that the impact of supply chain disruptions on different organizations may vary widely. Even if different levels of capabilities (agility, adaptability, etc.) may have contributed to the differential in outcomes, organizations need to learn how to harness their capabilities effectively in the face of disruptions. Although there is vast literature on supply chain disruption management, risk management, and resilience, we are not aware of any theory that comprehensively explains the decision-making process for managing disruptions. We argue that coping theory can explain how organizations may channelize resources based on two stages of appraisal to handle long- and short-term disruptions. Borrowing from psychology, we adapt coping theory to disruption management for any organization in any industry. In this paper, we demonstrate how supply chain coping strategies may explain outcomes of several organizations from different industries during the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that organizations may sustain and even thrive if they adopt the right coping strategies in their context. We present our thesis using the following three themes: (1) We first identify potential demand trajectories organizations may follow during and after the pandemic, (2) We explain how coping strategies adopted by organizations may impact these trajectories, and (3) We present a framework to help the decision makers understand potential positive impact the coping strategies may bring to their organizations in future crises.
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Lately, there has been increased interest among researchers in studying the resilience of manufacturing supply chains. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused severe disruptions in global supply chains, which have led to calls for greater resilience in these supply chains. This study provides insights into the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on supply chain resilience by conducting a multiple case study in three intertwined industries based on the dynamic capability view and the relational capability view as a theoretical underpinning. Data were collected during the pandemic in a two-stage interview process with 18 supply chain and production experts directly involved in crisis management. Internal and external documents supplemented the interviews. The results revealed seven higher-level capability groups for building resilience in intertwined supply chains during a pandemic outbreak: agility, collaboration, digital preparedness, flexible redundancy, human resource management, contingency planning, and transparency and visibility. Each capability group is supported by associated capabilities extracted from the data analysis. The findings obtained based on the results of the multiple case study are discussed, and implications for management and future research directions are presented.
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The financial implications of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and the effective mitigation of the negative effects are the subject of an ongoing debate. We aim to empirically substantiate this debate. Based on a sample of 4,032 publicly traded U.S. and Chinese firms, we conduct an event study and find that the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with a substantial decrease in shareholder value, significantly varying between U.S. and Chinese firms and across industries. We further identify structure- and supply chain-related firm factors that mitigate the negative impact. Specifically, we find that smaller firms experience a less negative impact on shareholder value, challenging established findings. Our results also suggest that a lower dependence on physical assets, a shorter trade cycle, and a higher degree of vertical integration attenuate the negative impact on shareholder value. Our findings provide important insights for managers and policymakers. We recommend managers to reduce the dependency on business models that strongly rely on physical assets, to streamline trade cycles, and to reduce supply chain complexity. From a policy perspective, we emphasise the importance of more industry-specific granularity of public support measures.
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PurposeThis study aims to explore business strategies adopted by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK's grocery-retail industry to cope with supply chain (SC) disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted two phases of research methods. In Phase 1, in-depth interviews were conducted with ten SMEs from England. Whilst abiding by national guidelines on the travel restrictions imposed by the government, in Phase 2 email-based interviews were conducted with 22 SMEs across the UK's grocery-retail industry. The thematic analysis technique was adopted to analyse the data.FindingsThis study reveals that SMEs need clearer avenues of communication with the government and better resources for learning and training. SMEs also need to expand their implementation of information technology to improve SC collaboration. In the meantime, they need to improve their power positions in SCs and reduce dependence on SC partners.Originality/valueSMEs in the grocery-retailer industry have been increasingly under pressure to compete with bigger grocery retailers. During the pandemic they have faced great challenges and been looking for strategies to improve their performance. While a major proportion of participants in the grocery-retailer industry are fragmented SMEs, the majority of studies have focussed on larger retailers and end consumers. With the help of the social exchange theory, this research reveals new insights into business strategies to cope with SC disruptions, and offer the foundation for a new line of research on preparation for future disruptions.
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COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war demonstrate the inevitability of supply chain disruptions. A lack of effective supply chain resilience (SCR) causes mismatches between demand and supply, and the destabilization of normal operational policies in production, distribution, and inventory control. Existing research mainly provides different definitions and measurements of supply chain resilience for different product supply chains. In this paper, we look at how Industry 4.0 (14.0) technologies enhance supply chain resilience. An 14.0 enabled architecture is designed for a factory with multiple suppliers and extended inventory for improving SCR. Different simulation scenarios for a LED factory are designed for demonstrating 14.0 technologies supporting SCR in different phases. © 2022 IEEE.
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This paper investigates the effect of the supply chain disruption, greener energy consumption, and economic growth on carbon emissions in advanced economies and emerging markets from 1997 to 2021 using panel quantile autoregressive distributed lags (QARDL) and the panel quantile regression (QR). The results of the two models confirm, on the one hand, the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and, on the other hand, the role of renewable energy consumption in mitigating carbon emissions in advanced and developing economies. Furthermore, the finding shows that the supply chain disruption for the long run is positive at all quantiles, indicating the evidence of association at the extreme low and high quantiles than at the intermediate quantile. In addition, the effect of the supply chain decreases at the lower quantile. It turns negative at the upper 90th quantile in the short run, indicating that the supply chain disruption reduces the environmental degradation under the bearish market conditions. In the future, the increasing supply chain disruptions due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and further COVID-19 worldwide can consider sluggish economic growth and play an essential role in promoting renewable energy abundance and reducing CO2 emissions. Practical implications are reported in the lens of carbon neutrality and structural changes.
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Purpose: The food supply chain worldwide has suffered severely due to the COVID-19 pandemic countermeasures. Previous research suggests that business model innovation (BMI) could be a viable solution for recovering from the pandemic and fostering organizational resilience. This study analyzes the capabilities that enable food companies to innovate their business model and thereby increase organizational resilience. Design/methodology/approach: Results were obtained using a multiple-case study approach consisting of 15 companies along the entire food supply chain. Managers and decision-makers were interviewed, and the collected insights were enriched with additional material. Findings: The results show several capabilities that enable companies to innovate their business model due to disruption. These capabilities are categorized into four phases based on the processual representation of BMIs. Originality/value: This study contributes to the understanding of BMI in the food supply chain and provides empirical evidence on the potential for business recovery through BMI. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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Building a local supply chain requires separating the regions and creating alliances with local partners and customers, resulting in a new business model. In local supply chains, the factory procures material, parts, and preassembled elements from local suppliers and sells the final products to local customers. Three-dimensional printing (3DP) has the potential to enable a more local, globally connected, and efficient supply chain through reduced inventory and transportation costs transforming the make-to-stock to the make-on-demand production cycle. In this study, we use an integrated Interpretive Structural Model and Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory technique to explore and assess the challenges faced by the 3DP companies to become enabling partners in the localized supply chains. The scope of the study, which was limited to 3DP of medical parts and components, identified that regulatory compliance, stringent quality standards, and lack of design expertise are significant barriers to developing localized three-dimensional printing ecosystems. Furthermore, the study identified immediate support from the local government, the high collaboration between the stakeholders, and the need for change in business approach as the key drivers for developing 3DP-enabled localized supply chain ecosystems. IEEE
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The coronavirus pandemic in 2020 brought global supply chain disruptions for retailers responding to the increased demand of consumers for popular merchandise. There is a need to adapt the existing supply chain models to describe the disruptions and offer the potential measures that businesses and governments can take to minimize adverse effects from a retail logistics perspective. This research analyses the possible reasons for supply and demand disruptions using a mathematical model of a retail supply chain with uncertain lead times and stochastic demand of strategic consumers. The established concepts of supply chain management are applied for the model analysis: multi-period inventory policies, bullwhip effect, and strategic consumers. The impact of the pandemic outbreaks in the model is two-fold: increased lead-time uncertainty affects supply, while consumer stockpiling affects demand. Consumers' rational hoarding and irrational panic buying significantly increase retailers' costs due to higher safety stock and demand variability. The bullwhip effect further exacerbates the disruption. The research contributes to the recent literature on business response to supply chain disruptions by developing a model where both retailers and consumers decide on the order quantity and reorder point during a pandemic outbreak. Buying limits, continuous inventory review, government rationing, substitutability, and omnichannel fulfillment are the measures that can limit the damage of supply chain disruptions from stockpiling during the pandemic. Effective communication and price and availability guarantees can mitigate the negative impact of panic buying.
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Social media (SM) fake news has become a serious concern especially during COVID-19. In this study, we develop a research model to investigate to what extent SM fake news contributes to supply chain disruption (SCD), and what are the different SM affordances that contribute to SM fake news. To test the derived hypotheses with survey data, we have applied partial least square based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. Further, to identify how different configurations of SC resilience (SCR) capabilities reduce SCD, we have used fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results show that SM affordances lead to fake news, which increases consumer panic buying (CPB); CPB in turn increases SCD. In addition, SM fake news directly increases SCD. The moderation test suggests that, SCR capability, as a higher-order construct, decreases the effect of CPB on SCD; however, neither of the capabilities individually moderates. Complimentarily, the fsQCA results suggest that no single capability but their three specific configurations reduce SCD. This work offers a new theoretical perspective to study SCD through SM fake news. Our research advances the knowledge of SCR from a configurational lens by adopting an equifinal means towards mitigating disruption. This research will also assist the operations and SC managers to strategize and understand which combination of resilience capabilities is the most effective in tackling disruptions during a crisis e.g., COVID-19. In addition, by identifying the relative role of different SM affordances, this study provides pragmatic insights into SM affordance measures that combat fake news on SM.
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Purpose>This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.Design/methodology/approach>This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.Findings>Supply chain disruption during a severe crisis has serious implications for SMEs in the grocery-retail sector. Affected firms must use information and communications technology to enhance collaboration with key supply chain partners so that closer links can be formed. Appropriate business strategies can help increase the flexibility of SMEs, reduce their dependency on external partners and better equip them to meet the challenge.Originality/value>The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.