Covid 19 Induced Supply Chain Disruptions and Business Resilience of Food and Beverage Manufacturing Firms in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic caused huge disruptions in global and domestic businesses as countries and borders were closed to contain the spread of the virus. This means companies’ supply chain resilience was tested. Hence, this study investigated the impact the supply chain disruptions induced by covid -19 had on business resilience among the food and beverage manufactures in Nairobi County, Kenya. The objectives were formulated, and these were to: establish the extent of Covid-19 induced supply chain disruption, in food and beverage manufacturing Firms in Nairobi County and to find out the influence of Covid-19 induced supply chain disruptions on business resilience of food and beverage manufacturing firms in Nairobi County. The theoretical framework for the study was based on dynamic capabilities and systems theory with dynamic capabilities being the main theory used. Descriptive research was employed in the research design and the population was made up of all food and beverages firms in Nairobi County which are 104. Primary data was used which was acquired via questionnaire (administered via electronic google forms and physically to the firms). For objective one (To establish the extent of Covid 19 induced supply chain disruption, in food and beverage manufacturing firms in Nairobi County) descriptive statistics was applied. To attain objective two (to find out the impact of covid 19 induced supply chain disruptions on business resilience of food and beverage manufacturing firms in Nairobi County, Kenya, regression, and correlation analyses was applied. On the 1st Objective which was to find out the extent of Covid-19 induced supply chain disruptions among food and beverage manufacturing firms, it was affirmed that firms have adopted all indicators of supply chain disruption in the downstream, internal, and upstream operations to a large scale. Objective two determined that downstream operations had the highest influence on all the variables measured for business resilience that is flexibility, timeliness collaboration and digitization, followed by internal operations then upstream operations. The study concluded that Covid-19 induced supply chain disruptions had been applied to a large extend and they had a significant impact on business resilience. It is recommended that firms increase investment in digitization tools to facilitate operational innovation in the supply chain to overcome the current cross-boundary challenges experienced in the foods sector which provides raw materials for many of the industries. Food and beverages firms should train their employees on the need to take up significance of implementing supply chain disruptions The research was limited since it focused on food and beverages firms in a single county and moreover, the study solely relied on Covid-19 as one of the global pandemic that induced supply chain disruptions. Moreover, future studies should focus on similar research in different sectors and expand the scope of global pandemics beyond Covid-19 to determine their impact on supply chain disruptions and business resilience.