The Impact of COVID-19 on the Italian Footwear Supply Chain of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)—Evaluation of Two Case Studies

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a case study related to two small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of the Italian footwear supply chain, comparing sales and production data from pre-pandemic years with those affected by the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. Specifically, two Tuscany companies in the world of fashion footwear sector have been assisted in the analysis of their supply chains. In particular, the case research method has been employed for theory building to evaluate how companies reacted to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to focus on potential resilience strategies that could be adopted to deal with a disruption, such as that caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, in order to understand the dynamics of the supply chains, the standard production processes were initially studied and mapped, analyzing in detail the planning, programming, and control phase. After conducting a descriptive analysis of the data, possible resilience factors of SMEs’ fashion supply chains have been extracted, and strategies that SMEs could adopt to better cope with the disruption caused by the pandemic have been suggested. The outcomes of this study can be used by decision-makers to predict the operative and long-term impacts of epidemic outbreaks on the supply chains with some suggestions of potential resilience improvement strategies. The paper is concluded by summarizing the most important insights and outlining future research agenda.

How did COVID-19 affect logistics and supply chain processes? Immediate, short and medium-term evidence from some industrial fields of Italy

“…In addition, as opposed to F&B, T&F is non-essential business, which led governments to order the closure of shops during the lockdown period. Our outcomes confirm that shop closure, coupled with limitation to people's mobility, was the key cause of the observed decrease in volume in the T&F sector ( Braglia et al, 2022 ). This study also adds considerations on interruptions in the SC, both at the supplier and production level, which emerged as important aspects as well, showing that T&F companies are particularly exposed to supply and production risks.…”

“…While the available literature has typically indicated these sectors as the most affected by the pandemic ( Cai and Luo, 2020 ), outcomes of this study better depict the effect of the Covid-19 in time and analyze the causes of variation. One of the key characteristics of T&F is that models and items offered on the market for sale try to capture the trends of the moment, with a very limited possibility to sell past collections in the future ( Braglia et al, 2022 ). This makes T&F particularly exposed to risk of losing sales compared to other sectors and makes it essential for T&F companies to simultaneously ensure short lead times and low costs of items, driven also by the “fast fashion” business model ( Shen and Chen, 2019 ); this is true in normal situations and exacerbated in times of uncertainty, such as during the Covid-19 pandemic.…”

“…A further interesting outcome from this study is that none of the T&F companies surveyed mentioned the increase in the stock level as an existing (pre-Covid) risk management strategy. The presence of high stock levels, indeed, contradicts the fact that many T&F companies work on a make-to-order basis ( Braglia et al, 2022 ), as well as the characteristics of volatility, velocity and variety typical of the T&F context ( McMaster et al, 2020 ). Another outcome of this study concerns the positive inclination towards investing in data and information sharing, which confirms the expected increase in the usage of information tools by T&F companies, for enhancing their online presence (also discussed by Achille and Zipser, 2020 ).…”

“…Similarly, two empirical studies only have been carried out in the retail supply chain ( Butt 2021 ; 2022 ), using a multiple case-study approach and with the specific aim to identify the countermeasures adopted against Covid-19. Two case studies in the fashion footwear context have been analyzed by Braglia et al (2022) , with the aim to investigate how companies in this field reacted to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, so as to increase resilience in case of future disruptions. The papers by Tamtam and Tourabi (2021) and Ghadir et al (2022) have instead analyzed the effects of Covid-19 in the automotive industry.…”

Searching for online information on the fit of children's footwear during the COVID‐19 pandemic: an analysis of Google Trends data

“…Other factors such as safety concerns with a fear that COVID-19 could be spread on products, may have also mediated purchase of footwear [20]. From an industry perspective, the supply-chains and exports were also substantially affected [21][22][23], which may have limited the availability of some footwear styles in some markets. The influence on the economy was substantial, reducing household incomes and discretionary purchases, which may have reduced purchases of footwear.…”