Acknowledging Sustainable Performance from the Global Crisis of COVID-19 in the Context of Bangladesh

Abstract

Internationally, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a public health extremity due to the outbreak of a novel coronavirus named COVID-19 in January 2020. It has been over a year since the globe was imprisoned by COVID-19, despite discovering numerous vaccines to combat the virus’s innumerable versions. With this aim, this research has organized around three themes to achieve this goal. Firstly, to explain the scenario of the influence of COVID-19 on the sustainable performance (environmental, social, and economic) of Bangladesh’s ready-made garment (RMG) industry. There has been a dramatic increase in the application of sustainable performance over recent decades, but less attention paid to developing countries, especially Bangladesh. Secondly, general online survey research has been conducted from July-August 2021 to empirically evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the RMG industries of Bangladesh. Thirdly, the study has provided recommendations to overcome any pandemic to maintain sustainable business performance. According to the survey results, 55.9% of participants assume there will be a loss in revenue and sales volume, while 44.4 percent are concerned about employee health and an increase in waste (using PPE, gloves, masks, and so on) in the industries during COVID-19 pandemic as well as 52.8% of employees anticipate that, Bangladesh’s loss of position against Vietnam is due to an ineffective sustainable business system. However, this pandemic has proved that business organizations should be more conscious in dealing with uncertain environments while sustainable performance can be a strategic solution.