Does crowdsourcing services moderate effect on supply risk management performance in COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from India

ABSTRACT

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, supply chains face challenges requiring significant social distancing measures to ensure that critical goods continue to be shipped to local shops and doorsteps of consumers. In this study, an attempt is being made to understand crowdsourcing’s scope to maintain the social distancing in the hotspot areas where connectivity is imperfect. An internet-based survey using a semi-structured snowball sampling technique has been conducted and a total of 167 responses were received from Indian MSME sector (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises) i.e., retail and wholesale business. A research framework has been developed considering supplier dependency, customer orientation, and systematic purchasing to measure the retail supply chain risk management (SCRM) performance and understand the moderating role of crowdsourcing on process to provide solutions that concurrently take lesser time while maintaining social distancing. The results revealed that in the pandemic situation, crowdsourcing services moderate the effect on supply risk management performance. Thus, the crowdsourcing strategy can lead to maintain social distancing in the pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19 pandemic
• crowdsourcing
• supply risk performance
• social distancing
• supply chain

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Chandra Kant Upadhyay

Chandra Kant Upadhyay is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Management Studies, DoE at Manipal University Jaipur, India. Before joining Ph.D., he has 4 years of experience in the INDO-RCUK Bridging Urban and Rural Divide project at IIIT Allahabad collaborated with the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. He holds MBA in Software Enterprise Management from C-DAC (Ministry of Electronics & IT) and bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from GZSCET Campus, Punjab. Also he worked as a Business Analyst in an IT industry. On the research front, his interest’s area Supply Chain Management, E-commerce, Sharing Economy, Crowdsourcing, Rural Development and Entrepreneurship. He has several research papers published in reputed journal Taylor and Francis, Springer, Elsevier, and presented his research work at various international conferences including IIT Bombay, IIM Lucknow. Also reviewer of reputed SSCI Journals and editorial board member of journals. He is the corresponding author and can be contacted at [email protected].

Vijayshri Tewari

Vijayshri Tewari, PhD is Professor in Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, (Prayagraj) India. She has 12 years of teaching experience at PG level. She has done Masters in Psychology and HRM. Her career has led her to specialise increasingly in the management of complex academic deliverables and projects. She has indulged in the application of modern leadership methods, motivation.

Vineet Tiwari

Vineet Tiwari, PhD is Assistant Professor in Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, (Prayagraj) India. He has been a Post-doctoral research fellow at IIM Ahmedabad. He is having more than 7 years of industry-academia experience. On the research front, his interests span over various areas like, Energy Policy and Energy Modelling, Climate Change Mitigation Policy, Demand Side Management and New and Renewable Energy Technology Policy Analysis. He is also venturing into Operations and Supply Chain Management and allied areas.