Influence of COVID-19 pandemic on fertilizer companies: The role of competitive advantages

Alina Ilinova, Diana Dmitrieva and Andrzej Kraslawski

Resources Policy, 2021, vol. 71, issue C

Abstract: The global crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic exerted significant impact upon most industries, however, the fertilizer industry has shown some resilience in the supply chain during the crisis. The main research question of the paper concerns the major factors ensuring the resilience of fertilizer companies under such circumstances. The paper presents current situation on the mineral fertilizers market, the influence of COVID-19 pandemic on fertilizer companies, and identifies the main market and industry trends. Then, it offers analytical framework for revealing key factors of success (potential competitive advantages) in the fertilizer industry as well as discusses their role in ensuring resilience of the companies during the crisis. The paper suggests categorization of competitive advantages that helps to identify the sustainable ones. It also reveals special role played by competitive advantages, based on core competencies, and justifies why they need to be developed in this new situation caused by the pandemic. One of the main findings in the paper is the conclusion about «global immunity» of fertilizer companies to environmental turbulence, as well as the conclusion about the new role and the need to transform traditional competitive advantages for the further successful growth of fertilizer companies.

Keywords: Fertilizer companies; Crisis; COVID-19; Competitive advantages; Environmental turbulence; Fertilizer industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420721000362
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:71:y:2021:i:c:s0301420721000362

DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2021.102019

Access Statistics for this article

Resources Policy is currently edited by R. G. Eggert

More articles in Resources Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().