The Impact of COVID-19 on Sustainable Business Models in SMEs

Iva Gregurec, Martina Tomičić Furjan and Katarina Tomičić-Pupek
Additional contact information
Iva Gregurec: Faculty of Organization and Informatics, University of Zagreb, 42000 Varaždin, Croatia
Martina Tomičić Furjan: Faculty of Organization and Informatics, University of Zagreb, 42000 Varaždin, Croatia
Katarina Tomičić-Pupek: Faculty of Organization and Informatics, University of Zagreb, 42000 Varaždin, Croatia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-24

Abstract: Businesses have been exposed to various challenges during the global pandemic, and their response to this disruption has impacted their resilience as well as their chances to overcome this crisis. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are changing their business models in order to adapt to this changing environment. Service-based industries have been hit particularly hard. This research investigates how SMEs operating in service industries have been coping with the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This research aims to gain insights into which transformation drivers they have focused on and which technologies they have selected as a means to respond to the disruption. These insights regarding SMEs are then explored according to their influence on the redefinition of sustainable business models in SMEs. The review data was analyzed via a customized research framework that contains three dimensions and 30 subconcepts. The results show the distribution of drivers and technologies across service sectors. They are organized into a Business Model Canvas and could be considered useful for academia and practitioners. The highly unpredictable environment allows for only a few feasible strategic approaches regarding an SME’s decision on to follow incumbents, to become a challenger, or to reinvent themselves based on their own transformation drivers and readiness to apply digital technologies.

Keywords: SMEs; COVID 19; service sector; transformation drivers; digital technologies; business model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1098/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1098/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:3:p:1098-:d:484536

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().