Lean Operations and Firm Resilience - Contrasting Effects of COVID-19 and Economic Recession

Nagihan Çömez-Dolgan; Başak Tanyeri-Günsür; Feng Mai; Xuying Zhao; Sarv Devaraj

doi:10.1016/j.omega.2025.103308

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Lean Operations and Firm Resilience - Contrasting Effects of COVID-19 and Economic Recession

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Lean Operations and Firm Resilience - Contrasting Effects of COVID-19 and Economic Recession

Nagihan Çömez-Dolgan, Başak Tanyeri-Günsür, Feng Mai, Xuying Zhao and Sarv Devaraj

Omega (Oxford), Vol.135, 103308

09/2025

DOI: 10.1016/j.omega.2025.103308

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Abstract

In recent times, there has been a call in the Operations Management discipline to study the effect of operations strategies during pandemics. Firms adopt various strategies to sustain their competitiveness and reduce the likelihood of financial distress. Operating lean is one of these strategies to achieve sustainable efficiency and success. However, there is little empirical evidence on whether lean is an effective strategy for reducing future financial distress and remaining resilient and viable. In this study, we examine if a firm's operational leanness along three dimensions – inventory, property/plant/equipment (PPE), and supply chain – impacts the probability of future financial distress and if the effects from these dimensions are substitutable. An equally interesting and related question is whether and how this relationship is affected by challenging macroeconomic times that cause shocks to the supply chain. Specifically, we study the contextual effect of 2020 COVID-19 and also the 2001 and 2008 economic recessions. Our results address the impact of operating lean as well as highlight the differential effects of the pandemic and the economic recession on the relationship between operational leanness and the likelihood of financial distress.

Resilience

Lean

Inventory

Supply chain

Pandemic

Recession

Details

Title: Subtitle: Lean Operations and Firm Resilience - Contrasting Effects of COVID-19 and Economic Recession
Creators: Nagihan Çömez-Dolgan - Özyeğin University
Başak Tanyeri-Günsür - Bilkent University
Feng Mai - University of Iowa
Xuying Zhao - Texas A&M University
Sarv Devaraj - University of Notre Dame
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Omega (Oxford), Vol.135, 103308
DOI: 10.1016/j.omega.2025.103308
ISSN: 0305-0483
eISSN: 1095-9572
Publisher: ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE; SAN DIEGO
Language: English
Electronic publication date: 03/10/2025
Date published: 09/2025
Academic Unit: Center for Social Science Innovation; Business Analytics
Record Identifier: 9984800200102771

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