Impact of Covid-19 Travel Restrictions on the Entrepreneurial Spirit of Handloom Weavers in Sri Lanka: A Qualitative Study

Pretheeba P
Senior Lecturer, Department of Management, Eastern University, Sri Lanka; and is the corresponding author. E-mail: pretheebap@esn.ac.lk Vimalini N
Assistant Lecturer, Department of Management, Eastern University, Sri Lanka. E-mail: vimalininadaraj001@gmail.com

The coronavirus pandemic interrupted the global supply chain and the economies all over the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Covid-19 outbreak as a pandemic, which has affected all powerful economies in the world (Plohl and Musil, 2021). The pandemic continues to create havoc across the world and countries have taken alternative measures to secure their economies, protect lives and limit its spread. To control the spread of Covid-19 and protect lives, many countries imposed a lockdown. As a consequence of this, worldwide trade fluctuated and local, international, small-scale and large-scale businesses and their functions collapsed. A large number of workers are under threat of losing their jobs as organizations are laying off employees (Acikgoz and Gunay, 2020).

Introduction
Among the affected sectors, the apparel sector plays a prominent role. The garment sector employs more than 60 million workers around the globe. The world apparel market growth diminished by 1.9% due to Covid-19 and is one of the reasons for world economic slowdown (Dohale et al., 2021). In the context of developing nations, the apparel sector plays a significant role in terms of revenue generation and employment creation. The industry is undergoing a drastic change due to global sourcing and high level of price competition. In recent times, it was observed that a major part of the industry has turned from developed countries like the US, the EU and Japan to countries in South Asia and South-East Asia. The reasons for the shift in the global scenario include availability of inexpensive skilled or unskilled human resource and overflow of ample raw material in Asian countries (Arora and Pargain, 2017).

In the South Asian context, Sri Lanka as a developing country has made a noteworthy contribution to the apparel and textile sector towards economic development. Sri Lanka is famous for its apparels at the international level. In 2019, the top exporting sector of Sri Lanka was apparel and textile industry which accounted for $5.3 bn worth of exports made mainly to the US and EU. A large portion of the apparel and textiles was exported to the US, which received the lion's share of 44.58%. Due to the country's friendly relations with international fashion and apparel industries, the country's traditional textile craft is back in focus within the local as well as international community. Sri Lanka incorporates textile craft into handloom textiles, batik and Dutch lace.

Many of the Sri Lankan handloom manufacturers are home-based small holders or individuals employed by private, community-based and provincial councils which are mainly catering to a growing export market. The arrangement of independent weavers working as a team under one organization is known as community-based business; when the provincial government takes care of certain weavers, it is known as provincial council-based handloom industries; and private business is the trade activities owned by individual people. Nearly 6,500 handloom centers are functioning around the country, and these enterprises are providing around 15,000 jobs (Ministry of Industry and Commerce, 2020). There are 771 production centers operating under the provisional councils, while 962 handloom centers function under private ownerships (Export Development Board, 2020). The Sri Lankan handloom industry's main foreign customers are the EU (Austria, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, UK, Sweden, France), Korea, South Korea, Maldives, US, UAE, Australia, Japan, Norway, etc. (Ministry of Industry and Commerce, 2020). In 2020, the total worth of exports in the handloom sector was $1.096 mn (Ministry of Industry and Commerce, 2020).

However, the industry was significantly impacted by the deadly third wave of Covid-19 during May/June 2021 in Sri Lanka. Each and every aspect of the livelihood of an individual as well the economy was greatly affected due by Covid-19. In May 2021, the Sri Lankan government imposed countrywide lockdown for an unknown period to control the drastic spread of virus. Sri Lankan citizens and industries did not have any idea or preplan to handle lockdown and the pandemic situation. During that time, many small- and large-scale industries struggled to run their business. Though the government relaxed the lockdown later, they continued to impose some strict restrictions on provincial movement during July 2021 and quarantined a few places. Therefore, small and private handloom industries could not function properly as they used to before the pandemic. They faced more challenges in getting the raw materials and also market the end products to the local and foreign customers. At the time of this study (June 2021), the country was facing the third wave of Covid-19, with the government again imposing countrywide and districtwide travel restrictions. In this uncertain environment, it was not easy to run the businesses in a profitable manner. And no one was sure when the country would return to normalcy. Small- and large-scale organizations had to create specific strategies to handle the circumstance. In this background, it is necessary to investigate the current challenges and status of the handloom weavers.

In the Sri Lankan context, a majority of the researchers studied the apparel industry, but very few focused on handloom sector at various stages. Especially, there is no research investigating the impact of pandemic on the handloom industry. To bridge this existing research gap, this study attempts to explore the challenges faced by the handloom industry during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Dynamic Capability theory is one of the leading theories in strategic management in recent years (Forkmann et al., 2018). Teece and Pisano (1994) proposed the Dynamic Capability theory focusing on three areas-sensing, seizing and transforming. Sensing refers to an organization's capacity to scan the organizational environment (Teece, 2007, 2014; Pavlou and Sawy, 2011; and Makkonen et al., 2014). According to Teece, sensing denotes gathering and clarifying information from the ecosystem 'to create a conjecture or a hypothesis about the likely evolution of technologies, customer needs, and marketplace responses' and 'involves scanning and monitoring internally'. Babelyte-Labanauske and Nedzinskas (2017) stated that in order to succeed in business, organizations need to continuously monitor their customers and partners and should have good partner relationship management and good practices for the market, which is referred to as sensing. Furthermore, the authors argued that sensing is an innermost characteristic of an individual. Helfat and Peteraf (2015) also stated that sensing component comprises both identifying potential prospects, and predicting competitive intimidations. This could happen explicitly via efficient market survey or informally by way of self-motivation of the individual as owner or the employees of the organization. When an organization develops a high sensing capacity, it would be able to work uninterruptedly, and consistently obtain deliberately pertinent indication from the environment, including business tendencies, best practices, and movements of the business counterparts.

After assessing the internal business environment such as strengths and weaknesses, the organization has to seek possible business opportunities that match with their internal potential, which is known as seizing (Teece, 2007). When internal and external environmental conditions are properly identified and matched with one another, firms would be able to utilize the opportunities successfully and threats are avoided to the maximum. Hence, seizing promotes investment decisions by getting to know the external and internal information, and it is closely linked with strategic decision making.

Teece (2007, p. 1335) defined transforming as the 'ability to recombine and reconfigure assets and organizational structures as the enterprise grows, and as markets and technologies change'. Li and Liu (2014) defined transforming as depending on the nature of the change that takes place in the business environment, and based on the nature of the objectives, the organization has the ability to execute and coordinate changes in the strategic decision making which involves a variety of managerial and organizational processes. Concentrating on factors that allow a company to produce goods or services better or more cheaply than its rivals is not enough for the survival of an organization in the present changing business milieu (Darawong, 2018). The stress is on dynamic capabilities derived from "the firm's ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external competencies to address rapidly changing environments" (Teece et al., 1997, p. 516). Individuals or organizations are expected to predict the possible opportunities in the fluctuating environment and they should develop the capability to address them by exploiting the needed resources (Eikelenboom and de Jong, 2019). It is the extension of Resource-Based View theory. Resource-Based theory reveals that organizations within the same industry perform differently due to possession of different kinds of resources and capabilities (Barney, 1991; and Peretaf, 1993). Resource-Based theory is contemplated as fixed in nature and it is inadequate to explain the changes that occur in a dynamic environment, which in turn influences the competitive advantage of the firm in changing market environment. Currently, due to the pandemic situation, individuals and organizations are adapting themselves to the new normal work behavior.

Researchers proved that development of dynamic capabilities has some direct and indirect positive association with the performance of an organization (Fainshmidt et al., 2016; and Pezeshkan et al., 2016). Firms provided with dynamic capabilities can better address imperative prospects and they tend to generate more ideas from their general environment which will support and motivate the business owners to change under the emergent conditions (Makkonen et al., 2014; and Ballesteros et al., 2017). During the Covid-19 outbreak, Chinese lifestyle service and food delivery giant, Meituan launched its new-generation self-designed driverless delivery vehicle which helped to follow the health safety measure, i.e., no contact person during the time of service, by restructuring the intelligent distribution system.

The aim of the study is to obtain firsthand meaningful insights with regard to the impact of Covid-19-induced travel restrictions on the handloom weavers in Sri Lanka.

Data and Discussion
The study was conducted during the 3rd wave of the Covid-19 crisis in Sri Lanka, following the implementation of a nationwide lockdown from mid-March 2020. The study employed explorative qualitative research design and adopted semi-structured telephonic interview method. It was decided to rely on telephone interviews because of movement control and physical distancing and social isolation norms. The interview data was collected from five handloom weavers through semi-structured, problem-focused interviews and inductive approach was adopted to analyze the information obtained. The telephone interviews were recorded using phone call recording. The duration of the call was around 15 min each. A narrative case study approach was adopted for compiling and analyzing the interview material. This approach sees the in-depth interview as a form of shared storytelling, in which participants recount narratives in response to interview questions and the researchers formulate their accounts into narratives. The respondents were selected through non-probability sampling technique, specifically purposive method, from a non-government organization that promotes handloom industry. The location of the respondents was Samanthurai, Kalawanchikudy and Trincomalee region.

A set of questions was composed as shown in Table 1. The questions were designed to obtain appropriate substantiation to defend the research objective. Content analysis was performed to assess the interview outcomes.

The analysis of the telephonic interviews conducted with handloom weavers indicates that there are certain issues they encountered due to movement control. Based on the interview, the study identified four main challenges (themes) the handloom weavers encountered-livelihood, raw material acquisition, access to personnel and institutional support-due to Covid-19 movement control enforcement.

Theme 1: Livelihood
Sri Lankan handloom industry is a cottage-based business. The weavers can produce on a small or large-scale based on the requirement of the customer. This sector provides employment opportunities directly or indirectly to many rural people. Hence it is regarded as the source of livelihood for rural communities who can create value through their skilled hands. However, Covid travel restrictions highly affected the livelihood of these workers. Handloom weavers are not well educated, they have experience and expertise only in the weaving industry; that is why they are completely dependent on handloom income to run their day-to-day activities. After the Covid-19 pandemic, they faced many difficulties due to travel restrictions, lockdowns and closure of their handloom centers, but they did not change their employment as they are still dependent on the handloom sector for employment.

Theme 2: Raw Material Acquisition
In the handloom sector, raw materials play a vital role. Based on the interview and discussion, it is believed that Sri Lankan handloom weavers mostly depend on Indian market for their raw materials, especially for high-quality yarn, namely, "Ganga", "Amarawathy", and "Sundaram". In Sri Lanka, some companies play an intermediary role in purchasing raw materials from Indian market then supplying to local small handloom centers. Due to movement control, owners of the weaving centers or the intermediary organizations faced difficulties in acquiring the raw material. This situation compels the business to take a downturn. Based on the answers, it is understood that the owners or intermediaries expect a travel permit to the place where they can get their raw materials or they expect to have a possible mechanism to supply the raw materials where they have their machineries by the relevant authorities.

Theme 3: Access to Personnel
The third theme is access to human resources. It is believed that the handloom industry in Sri Lanka operates as a cottage industry mostly set up in rural areas in Sri Lanka and most of the handloom weavers and allied workers are residing in the region. A respondent stated, Weavers are willing to work, because their livelihood depends on this business. Social distancing is the key to slowing down the spread of Covid-19. If there are chances to work remotely, the owners or the intermediates could try it. However, the main barrier for the owners or weavers is the non-availability of raw material.

Theme 4: Institutional Support
Covid-19 disrupted the lives and livelihoods of the weavers and allied workers. The allied workers/daily wagers, who depend on the weavers, were greatly affected by Covid-19 as well as by the movement restrictions. It is difficult for the cottage industry owners to take care of their workers due to their financial and forward and backward supply chain constraints. Hence, there are some institutional support was expected by the owner weavers. Based on the responses, it is understood that they are expecting financial and non-financial benefit from the related institutions representing the industry by way of concessional credit facilities, marketing assistance and financial support for their livelihood during movement restrictions. Also, the government could think of quality yarn/thread import and supply to the weavers, and several other schemes and initiatives which could promote these kinds of business across the country.

The survival of handloom businesses has been hit badly. Due to movement restrictions, the weavers could not access the raw material, which eventually led to reduction in their production and unemployment. Prolonged series of Movement Control Order (MCO) without alternate plans gradually resulted in many units becoming sick units. The handloom industry of Sri Lanka relies on the rural communities. Most of the time it is observed that the business is carried out as a family business. Women are involved in the business especially for their livelihood. It was rare to find the involvement of educated youth in the sector. Additionally, lack of technological knowledge is a hindrance among the communities, therefore a majority of the stakeholders in the supply chain still use traditional and manual practices which have existed for decades. Like most businesses in the handloom sector, the weavers in Eastern province also were constrained by lack of traceability in supply chain and logistics and financing. Handloom weavers struggled during the pandemic period without access to raw materials. The centers were operating below capacity due to lack of supply of raw materials. Normally, raw materials are collected by the intermediaries or by the owners directly from the suppliers. Pandemic conditions made this difficult to carry out. If the bottlenecks in the supply chain are removed, automatically it solves the issue of financial difficulties.

The handloom weavers (owners) know that there is huge market potential for their products and services not only within the country but also in globally. However, they failed to seize the opportunity because of lack of access to technology. This is primarily attributed to the fear of not satisfying the demand of the customer at the right time in the right way. According to them, if they adopt technology, then prospective customers could reach them in short period of time. However, due to their personal constraints they are reluctant of technology. They have realized the need for change in times of new normalcy via technology adoption, but they are still not prepared for it because they perceive digitalization of business as a challenge to their growth. Dynamic capabilities of handloom weavers need to develop (Table 2). The movement control triggered by the pandemic have opened up prospects for online businesses or digitalization of business activities. Handloom weavers can seize the opportunities in the current crisis environment with the help of digital technologies as it reduces the barriers of time and space, and it could help the weavers to develop good contact with suppliers and customers, which could increase the value of the business even in pandemic conditions.

Briel et al. (2018) and Vial (2019) stated that digitalization or digital transformation can support businesses in securing and nurturing the competitive advantages by cultivating organizational flexibility, strengthening the organization and augmenting their dynamic capabilities.

Conclusion
The research note attempted to identify the issues and challenges the handloom weavers in Eastern Province of Sri Lanka encountered due to unexpected movement control law imposed during May/June 2021 due to the spread of Covid-19. Among these, raw material access and marketing of the product were the major challenges for the weavers. Since the workforce lived around the weaving centers, labor was not a big issue for a majority of the weavers. It was also found that mostly women entrepreneurs were involved in the process. The lockdown impact manifested in three key business areas-financial management, supply chain disruptions and marketing of the final product. Furthermore, the importance of external support, especially that of the government and nongovernmental organizations for the survival and success of the sector in times of crisis is imperative. The government is expected to conduct some training programs to the weavers with regard to digitalization of supply chain and marketing process. The government could promote participation of educated youth in this sector. In addition, it could frame policies to provide more stimulus packages to those committed to weaving activities through proper screening mechanisms, including financing facilities and advisory services. Also, the government could encourage non-governmental organizations to patronize those involved in the handloom sector by way of providing advice, arranging regional training programs, and psychological assistance which could help them cope with stress, anxiety and psychological effects and other impediments caused by Covid-19.

Crises and pandemic conditions normally affect an organization's transactions, production abilities, and financial stability. However, despite the unfavorable situation, the handloom industry's entrepreneurial spirit did not dampen and efforts were made to develop new ways of doing things by the entreprenuers through obtaining knowhow and information from external parties to help build effective mechanisms for business development.

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