Running on a Fumes Amid Covid-19 Pandemic:
A Case Study of Sri Lankan Food Manufacturing Firms
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has become a global issue with a significant effect on the global economy. Economists and business leaders believe that its effect will much worse than during the 2008/09 financial crisis. This effect becomes more challenging for the manufacturers, when their supply chains have been severely affected by the pandemic. This is a key moment for the management to adopt new ways of doing things purely as a matter of survival. As Covid-19 is a new experience for many business leaders, they would face numerous challenges to decide on recovery planning. Almost all the manufactures started to redesign their business to tackle the challenges faced during the COVID-19. In order to that this study attempted to identify the challenges faced by Sri Lankan food manufacturing firms during the COVID-19 pandemic. We were able to discern the challenges that could be classified under particular categories such as challenges pertaining operation management, supply chain management, marketing and relationship management and human resource management. This study was conducted under the qualitative research approach which is guided by the paradigm of interpretivism. Five Sri Lanka food manufacturing companies have been selected for the in-depth interview to satisfy the quest for this knowledge.
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