Speeding up Capacity Building under Time Pressure to Produce COVID-19 Vaccines

Leonardo Santiago, Hugo Defendi

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference abstract in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Swiftly reacting to unforeseeable events is of utmost importance for firms. The COVID-19 outbreak has not only severely impacted individual and collective health worldwide but also hindered the global economy. The COVID-19 vaccine was considered by many specialists the best strategy to face this pandemic. Developing a vaccine in a timely manner was as daunting a task as scaling-up manufacturing to produce billions of doses. To swiftly increase the production capability, pharmaceutical companies needed to rely on technology transfer to build organizational capability and ramp-up production. There was a clear paradigm shift as speeding up of capacity building and technology transfer was driven by volume maximization, as opposed to profit, and characterized by cooperation as opposed to being a reaction to competitive pressure. We consider the question of how to speed up capacity building under time pressure. We thoroughly explored the empirical setting with multiple case studies across the pharmaceutical industry and supplemented our findings through an in-depth case study with a vaccine manufacture firm. Our findings suggest that celerity in producing vaccines was achieved by managing the interdependency across key enables with regards to production setup, relationships across the supply chain, and knowledge novelty.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the Eighty-third Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management
EditorsSonia Taneja
Number of pages1
Place of PublicationBriarcliff Manor, NY
PublisherAcademy of Management
Publication date2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023
EventThe Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2023: Putting the Worker Front and Center - Boston, United States
Duration: 4 Aug 20238 Aug 2023
Conference number: 83
https://aom.org/events/annual-meeting/future-annual-meetings/2023-putting-the-worker-front-and-center

Conference

ConferenceThe Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2023
Number83
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityBoston
Period04/08/202308/08/2023
Internet address
SeriesAcademy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings
ISSN0065-0668

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