| Author: | Xu, Xiaoyan |
| Title: | Supply chain resilience and social welfare enhancement under COVID-19 pandemic |
| Advisors: | Chung, Sai-ho Nick (ISE) Choi, Tsan-ming (ITC) |
| Degree: | Ph.D. |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Subject: | Business logistics Crisis management COVID-19 (Disease) -- Economic aspects Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering |
| Pages: | xi, 169 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The outbreak of COVID-19 has posed serious threats and challenges to supply chain management (SCM). Even though the pandemic has been announced as all over since 5 May 2023, there still exists profound influence. To cope with the challenges (such as the reshaped consumer behavior, supply disruptions, demand depression, etc.) and seek survivals, proper measures should be taken to build resilient supply chains under/after the pandemic. Under the pandemic, individuals’ worries of infection would create huge troubles for the society. On one hand, due to the severe unemployment issue during the pandemic, firms should pay attention to general welfare of the people(e.g., consumer and workers’ welfare) so as to achieve sustainability and bear the needed social responsibility under COVID-19. On the other hand, the government should also play an essential role in social performance. The government’s decisions (e.g., vaccine ordering strategy, subsidy design, etc.) will directly affect the people’s benefit and supply chain’s performance. After the pandemic, the reshaped consumer behavior constantly affects the firm’s operations and requires the firm to adapt the new normal. Overall, it requires the companies’ and the government’s joint efforts to establish a resilient supply chain and enhance the social welfare to cope with the pandemic. Motivated by various observed critical challenges brought by COVID-19 on SCM and social performance, this thesis is conducted to explore the potential solutions that can help supply chains achieve resilience and enhance the social welfare under/after the pandemic. We would like to provide guidance on both business decisions (e.g., pricing, product quality, employment level, service level, etc.) for companies and mechanism designs (e.g., subsidy program, vaccine ordering policy) for governments, aiming to help supply chains and people better survive the pandemic and have a long-term development after the pandemic. To capture the features of COVID-19 and its impacts on supply chain operations, we adopt the practice-based analytical modeling approach in this thesis. First, a systematic literature review is conducted to examine the impacts and specific challenges brought by the pandemic to supply chain operations. We analyze the current research status and propose a comprehensive research framework with a solid future research agenda. Then, based on the research gaps identified in the first step, analytical models are constructed to investigate the operations management issues from three perspectives: (i) service operations: the value of WhatsApp shopping service operations (WSO) in helping the company to survive the pandemic and enhancing social welfare; (ii) production: the government’s role and the impacts of government’s subsidy on mask production and social welfare; and (iii) procurement: the government’s optimal vaccine ordering strategy that maximizes the total social welfare. For service operations, the results indicate that WSO is not always effective to combat COVID-19. In particular, we uncover that when the consumers’ fear of infection is polarized (i.e., extremely low or high), WSO could be never recommendable. For mask production, we find that without the government’s price control (i.e., the manufacturer decides the mask price), the manufacturer and consumer subsidy programs are equally efficient in enhancing consumer surplus and reducing harms on social health risk. For vaccine ordering, the findings suggest the government need not order vaccines as early as possible, and the government should select its vaccine supplier based on the disease’s infection rate in the society in a dynamic manner. To conclude, motivated by the potential challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on SCM and social welfare, this thesis conducts a series of analytical studies to derive scientifically solid insights. These insights provide pertinent managerial implications to both supply chains and governments to improve their decision making. This thesis contributes to the development of SCM during the unexpected pandemics (e.g., COVID-19) from both the academic and practical perspectives. It helps supply chains better survive the pandemic and achieve sustainable development after the pandemic. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | open access |
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