The Impact of COVID-19 on Supply Chains in Slovakia: Differences between Outsourced and Insourced Logistics

Proceedings of The 5th International Conference on Research in Business, Management and Economics

Year: 2022

DOI:

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The Impact of COVID-19 on Supply Chains in Slovakia: Differences between Outsourced and Insourced Logistics

Dominika Vernerová, Sebastian Kummer and Ferdinand Daňo

ABSTRACT: 

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost all areas of the economy and logistics sector is no different. Although several studies have looked at the impact of the pandemic on the entire supply chain, no study has examined the differences between its impacts on insourced and outsourced business logistics. The main objective of the paper is to characterize the positive and negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on insourced and outsourced logistics based on the primary research in the B2B market in Slovakia. According to ANOVA test, we conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the main components of customer service (delivery time, reliability and delivery flexibility) of all companies, regardless of their core business, geographic scope or the form in which they provide their logistics activities (insourced or outsourced). However, enterprises with outsourced logistics were more likely to report that the COVID-19 pandemic did not affect them at all or affected them less, which may be influenced by the benefits gained from working with a logistics provider in the form of reducing operational risks, benefiting from a well-established logistics network, or the partner’s know-how in the field. The research findings of the present paper discuss the gap in the literature and provide a relevant theoretical and practical framework for further studies in different countries.

keywords: COVID-19, insourcing, outsourcing, Slovakia, supply chain .