Transforming Global Value Chains In the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Modern production and supply chains bring together various stages of value creation worldwide. Currently, due to development of digitalization, the increasing widespread and application of modern ICTs (robots, artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, the Internet of things, etc.) value added chains (VAC) have evolved and continue to develop taking into account the possibilities of building new business models, however, focused as before, on reducing costs and maximizing profits. New technologies resulted in even greater fragmentation of the production process, motivated nowadays by proximity to the consumer at a particular stage of operations, the possibility to reduce transportation costs and a greater degree of “customization”, one of the significant competitive advantages, rather than the price of production factors and their availability. Such concentration of the production process within the framework of the value-added-chain makes involved companies quite vulnerable to global shocks such as the pandemic of the new coronavirus COVID-19, on the one hand, and on the other hand, provide the opportunity to diversify their supply and sales processes