The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Competence of Business Managers as Mediation on the Performance of Fast-moving Consumer Goods in Ghana

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a worldwide concern hampered people's mobility and global trade. The study seeks to find the linkage between business managers' competency toward the performance of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is a quantitative technique that has a sample of 750 respondents, of which 732 responses were returned as per the questionnaires sent for data collection. The partial least squares technique was deemed appropriate and was used to scrutinize the data, which was based on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings revealed that COVID-19 pandemic has harmed managers' ability to operate their firms in Ghana, resulting in layoffs, low market share, low firm productivity, low client retention, a rise in the unemployment rate, and the closing of businesses. These findings supported profit maximization and survival-based theories, specifically the explanations advanced under the premise that every organization will act in its own best interests to maximize profit and survival, using every tactic to achieve survival. The implications of this study are to ensure that FMCG in Ghana ultimately migrates into digital platforms in order to remain flexible in their operation as a business and allow effective transactions among customers and business.