HKTVmall: Responding to Shortages during the COVID-19 Pandemic

As the leading e-commerce platform in Hong Kong, Hong Kong TV Shopping Network Company Limited (HKTVmall) faced an important challenge in early 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic had severely disrupted the global supply chain for personal protective equipment (PPE), and prices for masks and other products on its website had skyrocketed. While management had little knowledge or experience in sourcing or producing such products, they wondered whether they had a responsibility to act on this matter. Despite its meteoric growth, the company had yet to turn a profit, so the executives were unsure as to whether they should let the invisible hand of the market restore the equilibrium between supply and demand or take an extra step to guarantee a stable supply of PPE. If the platform intervened, was contracting with new local suppliers the right way to go, or should HKTVmall itself start producing PPE?

This case is intended for undergraduate- and graduate-level finance courses that are focused on theory of the firm, business strategy, corporate social responsibility, and platform economics. The case will teach students how to think critically about the risks and rewards of pursuing socially responsible practices under periods of great duress. It will teach students to reflect on how platform business models operate and at what point these firms need to consider more active participation in balancing the supply and demand of products that are sold through their channels. Not only will it give students an inside view of how firms considered their roles in local communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it will also allow them to consider a make-versus-buy decision with limited near-term performance implications that could better establish a company as a responsible partner in the future. On completion of this case, students should be able to<br><br><ul><li>conduct a cost-benefit analysis to assess the wait, buy, or make decision;</li><li>analyze how to manage public health risks associated with supply chain disruptions;</li><li>examine ways that firms balance profit and corporate social responsibility; and</li><li>explain the dynamics of platform economics.</li></ul>

• corporate social responsibility
• supply chain disruptions
• wait, buy or make decision
• platform economics