Impact of COVID-19 on SMEs and employment

Ahmad Al-Fadly ()
Additional contact information
Ahmad Al-Fadly: Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, 2020, vol. 8, issue 2, 629-648

Abstract: COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease-causing serious health hazards and fatalities to humans around the world. The objective of this paper is to identify how COVID-19 caused immense failures to society, particularly Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the hospitality and tourism sectors which provide employment to many people. A literature review examined how preventive measures to control COVID-19 devastated businesses. The review highlighted particular interest to workforce, supply chain and cash flow of SMEs. This research addressed the gap in understanding what and how business was affected as seen by business owners. This research used phenomenology to study businesses crippled by the pandemic. Interviews were conducted with several business owners using a set of unstructured guiding questions. Verbal responses from the participants were transcribed to textual data and analyzed thematically. The results constructed a generalized perception of SME business owners and identified themes reflecting the business individual, the business, and business survival. Importantly, the study revealed several government actions are needed to support surviving businesses and revive lost businesses, specifically, in the form of stimulus funds, moratoriums, extended loans and waivers of interest.

Keywords: COVID-19; pandemic; economic effects; hospitality; tourism; businesses owners (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://jssidoi.org/jesi/uploads/articles/30/Al-Fa ... s_and_employment.pdf (application/pdf)
https://jssidoi.org/jesi/article/720 (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:ssi:jouesi:v:8:y:2020:i:2:p:629-648

DOI: 10.9770/jesi.2020.8.2(38)

Access Statistics for this article

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is currently edited by Manuela Tvaronaviciene

More articles in Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues from VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Manuela Tvaronaviciene ().