Between Here and There. The Role of Social Entrepreneurship in Restoring the Supply Chain of Face Masks During the COVID-19 Crisis

Boersma Kees () and Larruina Robert
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Boersma Kees: Department of Organization Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Larruina Robert: Department of Organization Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, 2024, vol. 21, issue 2, 167-187

Abstract: As a cross-border, transboundary crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic affected societies worldwide, compromising socio-technical systems across geographical, judicial, and administrative borders. The outbreak can be considered a health crisis, but due to the measures taken to control the spread of the virus, it also exposed the global medical supply chain’s vulnerability. Formal authorities struggling to restore the supply chain caused serious problems in the crisis response as the supply of vital medical equipment was scrutinized. However, unexpected allies including social entrepreneurial initiatives provided bottom-up solutions to restore the broken supply chain. This paper seeks to bring attention to how social entrepreneurs respond to a crisis alongside the formal crisis governance system and generate resources related to product development and logistics. By presenting a case study about how Refugee Company’s “Mondmaskerfabriek” (Face Mask Factory) engaged with the cross-border dimension of the COVID-19 crisis, we show how a social enterprise was able to establish a supply chain and domestically produce personal protection equipment. As the article shows, both crisis management scholars and policy makers should pay more attention to the potential of social entrepreneurial activities during crisis.

Keywords: COVID-19 crisis response; supply chain; personal protection equipment; social entrepreneurship; resilience from below (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1515/jhsem-2021-0063

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