TY - JOUR
T1 - An empirical investigation of COVID-19 impact on the finance and human resources of logistics and supply chain companies in Oman
AU - Mishrif, Ashraf
AU - Khan, Asharul
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Economic Research Forum.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - The impact of COVID-19 has badly affected most companies across the economy, with many of them claiming losses in revenue and human resources. As such claimed losses are hard to quantify, we aim to understand the nature and scale of the shortfalls in the company’s revenues and the factors affecting changes in revenues, including demand of company’s services and change in the operational capacity. The impact of shortfalls is also examined on human resources in terms of employee’s layoffs, wages, and new recruitment during the time of COVID-19, specifically the period 2020–2021. The quantitative analysis is based on a survey questionnaire of 61 logistics and supply chain companies randomly selected from the industrial cities and free economic zones in the Sultanate of Oman. Data analysis reveals that the pandemic reduced the demand for services and lowered revenues, subsequently affecting wages and employees’ layoffs. The lack of imported spare parts and raw materials affected the firm’s operational capacity. The surveyed companies suffered from empty shipping containers and heavy traffic at various ports. While providing a more realistic and quantifiable account of the economic impact of the pandemic on firms operating in Oman, our findings have practical implications for policymakers and executives to develop a rapid response system to minimize the financial and human resources costs at the time of crises.
AB - The impact of COVID-19 has badly affected most companies across the economy, with many of them claiming losses in revenue and human resources. As such claimed losses are hard to quantify, we aim to understand the nature and scale of the shortfalls in the company’s revenues and the factors affecting changes in revenues, including demand of company’s services and change in the operational capacity. The impact of shortfalls is also examined on human resources in terms of employee’s layoffs, wages, and new recruitment during the time of COVID-19, specifically the period 2020–2021. The quantitative analysis is based on a survey questionnaire of 61 logistics and supply chain companies randomly selected from the industrial cities and free economic zones in the Sultanate of Oman. Data analysis reveals that the pandemic reduced the demand for services and lowered revenues, subsequently affecting wages and employees’ layoffs. The lack of imported spare parts and raw materials affected the firm’s operational capacity. The surveyed companies suffered from empty shipping containers and heavy traffic at various ports. While providing a more realistic and quantifiable account of the economic impact of the pandemic on firms operating in Oman, our findings have practical implications for policymakers and executives to develop a rapid response system to minimize the financial and human resources costs at the time of crises.
KW - company revenue
KW - COVID-19
KW - economic impact
KW - Human resources
KW - Logistics and supply chain
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85170680102&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1080/17938120.2023.2254187
DO - 10.1080/17938120.2023.2254187
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85170680102
SN - 1793-8120
VL - 15
SP - 241
EP - 260
JO - Middle East Development Journal
JF - Middle East Development Journal
IS - 2
ER -