Title: COVID-19 pandemic supply chain disruption and simulation of retail store resilience

Authors: Varinder M. Sharma; Ajay K. Aggarwal; Dinesh S. Dave

Addresses: Department of Marketing, Eberly College of Business and Information Technology Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Pennsylvania – 15705, USA ' School of Business, Henderson State University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas – 71999, USA ' Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, John A. Walker College of Business, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina – 28608, USA

Abstract: The uncontrollable spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and countries' countervailing responses to mitigate its impact on their people led to prolonged stockouts of essential consumer products, resulting in consumer panic buying, which further exacerbated the stockout crisis. The retail stores were unable to mitigate this crisis. This study offers a conceptual framework for retail stores to become resilient to such disruptions in the future using their existing resources and capabilities. Later, we illustrate the testing of the framework using simulation methodology. The results demonstrate that stores can quickly and cost-effectively mitigate stockouts by deploying appropriate substitute products, discounts, return policies, demand containment, and effective communication with consumers. Finally, we furnish implications for supply chain resilience and retail managers and describe the study's limitations.

Keywords: supply chain resilience; prolonged stockout; high consequence disruptions; HCDs; simulation of resilience; extant resources and capabilities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2024.136488

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2024 Vol.47 No.2, pp.143 - 160

Received: 17 Jun 2021
Accepted: 02 Jul 2021
Published online: 05 Feb 2024 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article