What Does Cross-Industry-Production Bring Under COVID-19? A Multi-Methodological Study

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to shutdowns of myriad factories, resulting in extreme scarce production capacity and disruptions of supply chains. Many manufacturing firms around the world struggle to ramp up their production capacity to mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic. We adopt a multimethodological approach to examine the impacts of cross-industry production (CIP) on supply chains and society. First, we provide evidence of CIP of personal and protective equipment (PPE), including CIP's business model, CIP in real-world practice, and the global supply chain of PPE by collecting public organizational data. Second, we confirm the importance of CIP and its beneficial impacts on brand value and society by conducting statistical tests and analyses. Third, we propose a framework of CIP implementation from the perspectives of firms and governments. Finally, we conduct real-world case studies to illustrate the framework of CIP. We find that CIP in pandemic time can significantly increase capacity to tens or even thousands of times of normal capacity in a short period, which can enhance firms’ brand values and profiles and improve their social impacts and benefits. We provide managerial insights and guidance to firms with potential CIP capability and governments in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.