Detecting the Crisis of Supply Chain Management on E-Commerce for Sustainability Using Q-Technique

Abstract

Detecting the crisis of supply chain management is an important subject for the sustainable management of e-commerce. The purpose of this study was to explore the application of Q-technique to the detection of supply chain crises in the imported food industry under the influence of COVID-19. Literature analysis, expert consultation, and Q-technique methods were adopted. We used an expert consultation and questionnaire survey combined with Q-technique using the imported food industry in Taiwan as an example. Fifteen business owners were interviewed to identify priorities for supply chain crises, and 137 questionnaires were collected to determine the strength of each item. By investigating suppliers, distributors, wholesalers, platform operators, online sellers, and logistics operators, this study obtained the priority of supply chain crisis items and the strength of factors for each item. The results show that Q-technique can effectively detect the crisis of cross-border supply chain management, clarifying import food industry e-commerce supply chain crisis items and determining their priority and strength, to help enterprises make emergency decisions regarding supply chain operation, and they can also be used as a reference for enterprises to respond to the crisis.