Risk Management: Rethinking Fashion Supply Chain Management for Multinational Corporations in Light of the COVID-19 Outbreak

摘要

Through an international business risk management lens, the widespread and catalyticimplications of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic on the supply chains (SCs) of fashion multinationalcorporations (MNC) are analyzed to contribute to existing research on supply chain management(SCM). While a movement towards agile, networked supply chain models had been in considerationfor many firms prior to the outbreak, the pandemic highlights issues inherent in supply chains thatemploy concentrated production. We examined the current state of fashion supply chains, risks thathave arisen historically and recently, and existing risk mitigation methods. We found that whilelean supply chain management is primarily favored for its cost and waste reduction advantages,the structure is limited by the lack of supply chain transparency that results as well as the increasingdemand volatility observed even before the COVID-19 outbreak. Although this problem might existin the agile supply chain, agile supply chains combat this by focusing on enhancing communicationand buyer-supplier relationships to improve information exchange. However, this structure alsoentails an associated increase in inventory and inventory costs. The COVID-19 pandemic hascaused supply and demand disruptions which have resonating effects on supply chain activitiesand management, indicating a need to build flexibility to mitigate epidemic and demand risks.To address this, several strategies that firms can adopt to control for such risks are outlined and keyareas for further research are identified which consider parties both upstream and downstream ofthe fashion supply chain.