The Impact of IoT on the Performance of Vaccine Supply Chain Distribution in the COVID-19 Context

Abstract

The Government of India has started the distribution of the Covishield and Covaxin vaccines across all the comprising states. In developing states like Bihar, the vaccine supply chain (VSC) is likely to face many challenges due to poor health infrastructure, multidimensional poverty, and poor literacy. Supply chain practitioners are experimenting with available technologies to deal with supply, demand, and behavioral challenges. The present research work seeks to inspect the potential impact of Internet of Things (IoT) on the performance of the VSC. This study draws literature on the impact of IoT on product management, demand management, supply management, social behavior, and government rules and regulations to develop and test the conceptual model in Bihar. Consequently, the study administrated a survey and used structural equation modeling to investigate the proposed hypothesis. The analysis illustrates the positive influence of IoT adoption on the performance of the VSC in distributing the COVID vaccine. The finding also shows the positive relationship between product, supply, demand, and social behavior in IoT adoption. Analysis displays that Indian politicians can substantially impact vaccine distribution because they have influence and awareness of their local districts. This research work has a significant theoretical and managerial contribution for government and practitioners, supporting regulatory officials and policymakers in improving vaccine distribution.