Pandemic-induced knowledge gaps in operations and supply chain management: COVID-19’s impacts on retailing

Purpose – This Impact Pathways paper aims to provide a timely and structured discussion of real-worldproblems at Marks and Spencer and in retail in general, evoked through the current COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approach – The article presents collaborative research based on more than five hours ofinterviews and several iterative paper writing steps between management scholars and Marks & Spencer’s Headof Procurement - Logistics and Supply Chain. Continuous discussions for more than ten months among theresearch team assure the timeliness and relevance of the findings. The exceptional position of the executive and hiscareer biography allowed the integration of a variety of intra-organisational and inter-organisational stakeholders.Findings – This paper highlights the impacts of the current COVID-19 pandemic on operations and supplychain management (OSCM) in the retail industry, structured in upstream, internal and operational, anddownstream and customer perspectives. The paper concludes with a practice-infused research agenda, whichaims to trigger relevant research about the current and potential future crises.Research limitations/implications – Although the research agenda is directly related to the COVID-19pandemic and the retail industry, the future research pathways are expected to inform business responses topotential future external shocks other than pandemics and in different industries as well.Originality/value – Despite a plethora of studies already published on COVID-19 and OSCM, little is knownon how the outbreak affects specific firms and industries. This paper offers an overview of COVID-19 relatedchange as it happens at the retailer and in the retailing industry in general. This article is among the first toprovide a practice-infused call for research on urgent issues being faced by business leaders directly relevant toour domain.