International plastics manufacturing companies’ response to covid-19 in terms of changes in strategy and sourcing

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this thesis is to study how international Swedish plastics manufacturing companies have responded to covid-19 in terms of changes regarding corporate and business unit strategy and global sourcing. As research type a case study consisting of three case companies was applied. Mainly qualitative data using interviews were collected. The conclusions are that a regionalisation of the location of business units of a corporate group and a regionalisation of corporate strategies may take place and that covid-19 may enhance the process of regionalisation of sourcing of the case companies, which may lead to somewhat safer deliveries from suppliers, but higher prices for the case companies. It is suggested that in times of crisis, two types of SWOT-analyses should be made. One SWOT-analysis should cover strategic issues and thus be part of a strategy formulation process and lead to contingency strategies. The second SWOT-analysis should cover global sourcing issues and lead to contingency plan from a sourcing perspective.