Impact of COVID–19 Pandemic on Business Sustainability in the Apparel Industry of Sri Lanka

Abstract

During the COVID-19 crisis, the apparel industry faces many challenges, including rising costs and workplace environment changes. Therefore, cost reduction becomes a top priority, and workplace environment changes impact business sustainability. This research purposes of determining the COVID-19 pandemic impact on business sustainability in the apparel industry of Sri Lanka. Aggressive cost reduction strategies, workplace environmental changes are considered independent variables, and business sustainability is considered the dependent variable. This research is based on the positivism paradigm, and quantitative data have been collected using a deductive approach. The cluster sampling method applies to collect data from 100 employees from the top 10 textiles and apparel manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka. The descriptive statistical analysis indicated the most respondents are within the range of mean value shares. According to the results of ANOVA and model summary, substantively support H2. The regression analysis results show a significant impact of workplace environmental changes on business sustainability, and aggressive cost reduction strategies have no significant impact. These results do not support H1. There are limitations to simplifying the findings when considering the response rate and sample size. The effect of other factors that can impact the business sustainability of apparel companies was not considered in this study because it was limited to three variables. The authors recommend further research to determine the impact of COVID -19 on business sustainability by using small and medium-sized apparel companies in Sri Lanka.