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Restoring the Medical Supply Chain from Below: The Role of Social Entrepreneurship in the Production of Face Masks during the Covid-19 Crisis
Kees Boersma
author
Robert Larruina
author
2021
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA (USA)
English
The COVID-19 pandemic hit societies all over the world deeply. Since it has affected societies worldwide and compromised socio-technical systems across geographical, judicial and administrative borders it can be considered a cross-border, transboundary crisis. This dimension has exposed the global medical supply chain's vulnerability. Due to its 'lean and mean' characteristics the supply chain was unable to function adequately during the crisis and formal authorities struggled to restore it, causing serious problems in the response to the pandemic. At the same time, numerous initiatives from below tried to give a (partial) answer on how to restore the broken supply chain. This paper presents a case study about a Dutch social enterprise (i.e. the Refugee Company) engaged with the cross-border dimension of the COVID-19 crisis. The Refugee Company set up a supply chain, operation and (domestic) production of personal protection equipment (PPE) materials, in particular face masks. The paper draws on data collected through qualitative methods, including document analysis (secondary sources), interviews and observations. The conclusion is that social entrepreneurs and enterprises played a crucial role in restoring the supply chain. The paper provides valuable lessons for both policy makers and crisis managers: there is great potential in recognizing the entrepreneurial activities from below in strengthening supply chains at times of crisis, potentially making them more sustainable and resilient.
COVID-19 crisis response
supply chain
personal protection equipment
face masks
social entrepreneurship
resilience
f.k.boersma@vu.nl
exported from refbase (http://idl.iscram.org/show.php?record=2331), last updated on Tue, 13 Jul 2021 18:20:19 +0200
text
http://idl.iscram.org/files/keesboersma/2021/2331_KeesBoersma+RobertLarruina2021.pdf
KeesBoersma+RobertLarruina2021
ISCRAM 2021 Conference Proceedings – 18th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management
Iscram 2021
Anouck Adrot
editor
Rob Grace
editor
Kathleen Moore
editor
Christopher W. Zobel
editor
18th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management
2021
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA (USA)
conference publication
260
269
978-1-949373-61-5
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