The Impact of COVID-19 on the Food Supply Chain and the Role of E-Commerce for Food Purchasing

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Overall, the article presents an interesting analysis. The topic is relevant to the scope of the journal. This is a new and original contribution. The title is appropriate. Keywords are adequate. The presentation of material is logical and technically correct. The writing style (in English) is clear and understandable. The introduction is comprehensive and well structured. The stated objectives of the study are indeed interesting and relevant. The literature review does not present a quite comprehensive overview of the topic and references are not adequate nor updated (See for example; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031894; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031573; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031507; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031484). Some gaps should be identified in order to better frame the study within the state of the art. Methodology part, is strongly justified. Conclussion part should present a brief summary of the research and must be able to read and understood without knowing all the details. In addition, the authors should emphasize to the implications for research, or how can the research be used in practice and influence society. the abstract typically outlines the research focus (statement of the problem/specific gap in existing research/research issue addressed), the research methods used to solve the problem, the major findings of the research; and, the main conclusions and recommendations, and the significance or implications of the findings. I believe the authors should invest to improve their abstract (although is not bad, it somehow does not give justice to the whole effort). Please check in text table numbers.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The topic of the manuscript is current; however, it must be written more clearly so the reader can understand what the authors wanted to say. Furthermore, the link with the topic of the journal should be identified and emphasized.

The abstract must be reconsidered. The authors mentioned that the worldwide pandemic was in 2019-2020, information that is repeated in the text. Actually it started in March 2020 and is still present. The introduction to the topic is too long, but the presentation of the methodology used and the contribution of the authors are missing.

In the Introductory section, the first sentences could be merged, it refers to the same thing. Statistical data on people affected by Covid-19 should be updated (refers to April 2020). moreover, other values appear for the same information in line 94. There is no introduction to the methodology used and the purpose and motivation of the research are not presented. There is no paragraph at the end of the section to present the following sections of the manuscript.

The literature review section is not properly prepared. The research gap is not suitable identified. The lines 106-110 must be reformulated. The Figures are not clear.

The first paragraph of the Methods section is not correctly prepared (wording, method, who are the respondents, how many are there, where are they from, etc.).

The conclusions are not clear, relevant and the contribution of the authors is not identified.

Quotations in the text are made carelessly. (What does FAO, 2020k or (1), (2) mean?)

Massive adjustments to the wording and style of the English language are needed.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The aim of the article is interesting and very important in the context of COVID-19, but some things need to be improved:

1. The review of the literature could be complemented, especially when arguing the proposed hypotheses. The truth is that the referenced literature is very poor.
2. The methodology is confusing. They pose a model typically analyzed with SEM. Why haven't they used this technique? In any case, the methodological part must be explained in greater detail. For example, the use of SPSS (line 327). It is a software, but what a concrete process.
3. As the authors point out, the sample size during the pandemic is very small and this prejudices the results.
4. It is not understood what table 6 (or 7) provides where it is located.
5. The part of conclusions and implications is very poor.

In addition, there are several elements of a formal type:

• The quotes are not in the Sustainability format.
• The figures are a bit small and it is difficult to read what appears in them.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

The authors of “The Impact of Covid-19 on the Food Supply Chain and the Role of E-commerce for Food Purchasing” present a relevant topic, namely “how the COVID-19 epidemic affected the behavior of online consumers and producers in related to the effects of the purchase of food by the end user”, an aspect that is found in the economies of all states, which makes the work have the effect of multiplication.

The bibliographic sources, citations, concepts and hypotheses established in the study are appropriately used by the authors of the research. Specifically, those that show us that “the transport of food by vehicles has fallen to 65% due to border restrictions [FAO, 111 2020j; Bakalis et al., 2020]”, which shows the study of multidisciplinary authors and with the applied orientation of the results of research carried out in the economies of the Member States.

The research methodology is simplistically presented. The authors of the research used data from end-users of the e-commerce network and a final set of data focused on e-commerce network producers. Moreover, the working tool is the questionnaire (applied at the level of the 1300 final consumers), and the Q technique supports the classification of “statements made by specialists in e-commerce for purchased food”.

The research results are presented by the authors of the research based on the interpretation of the data collected through questionnaires applied to the target group, and through the Q technique analyzes the crisis in the supply chain with imported food. However, we suggest to the authors of the research to highlight the main scientific results as a personal contribution to the scientific literature, given that the results are adequately presented but much focused on the application side and can create a multiplier effect on other economies regarding the e-commerce network at the global level. Moreover, the predictive effect helps connect macroeconomics to e-commerce solutions.

The conclusions are presented by the authors of the research, respectively the authors emphasize that "the statements that describe the characteristics of the e-commerce supply chain problem under the influence of COVID-19". Moreover, the study authors also present the limitations of the study, but we suggest that they present more clearly the involvement in future research. Moreover, as we mentioned in the results chapter, we appreciate that the personal scientific results that contribute to the scientific literature should be highlighted.

We congratulate the research team, we suggest the revision of the paper according to the above mentioned.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

I believe that the answers provided qualify the paper for publishing.

Reviewer 3 Report

The conclusions section could be expanded, but the vast majority of the points discussed have been corrected.