An empirical investigation of COVID-19 impact on the finance and human resources of logistics and supply chain companies in Oman

Abstract

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.