For today's society and most of the people living in it, the current situation is a crisis on a scale we have never seen before. Regardless of the angle from which one looks at the corona crisis, deep shocks are evident with consequences that are as yet difficult to assess. Science is in demand and challenged, far beyond the medical perspective. In its storytelling portal story.uni-koeln.de, the University of Cologne has bundled numerous contributions from scientists on the corona crisis, not least with contributions from WiSo professors André Marchand (Key Research Initiative Digital Transformation And Value Creation) and Fabian Sting (Supply Chain Management Area).
WiSo researchers André Marchand, Martin Fritze and Friederike Gobrecht shed light on the phenomenon of hamster purchases from an economic perspective. Using a survey, they have jointly explored the motives behind the hamster buying behaviour, which is basically also perceived by the hamster buyers themselves as socially undesirable and lacking in solidarity.
Fabian Sting, Professor for Supply Chain Management, Strategy and Innovation speaks of a "black swan" in view of the corona crisis, a term taken from risk management. In risk analysis, the term stands for an unexpected and improbable event with enormous consequences. In the interview with Eva Schissler, Professor Sting explains what the current fundamental disruption means for global supply chains in the context of efficiency and flexibility, where there are historical examples and what the current "stress test" can mean for the future.