ABSTRACT
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, several researches have been conducted in different parts of the world, including Saudi Arabia. However, there is little focus of attention on qualitative exploration of the impacts of COVID-19 in the context of Saudi Arabia. The primary objective of this study was to explore the opinions of legal, economic, and medical experts pertaining to the impacts of COVID-19. The methodology employed in this paper was a qualitative research design. The data was collected with a specific focus on the use of an in-depth interview. Fifteen (15) participants among the legal, economic, and medical experts were finally used for the interview among the targeted participants. In order to analyze the data, different themes were generated from the transcribed interviews, which were: Overview of COVID-19, legal, economic, health impacts. The finding of the study revealed that the current pandemic of Covid-19 has multidimensional impacts in Saudi Arabia. The pandemic has negative impact not only on the social and economic areas but also on the legal sphere. Social and economic impacts of the Covid-19 increase the inequality, discrimination, unemployment, deprivation of usual education, and disruption in business activities. The findings further indicated that the legal impact of COVID-19 has been mentioned in the aspect of the inability to perform contracts that have the potential to trigger default or force majeure provisions leading to litigation or reconciliation. In addition, the participants also acknowledged the health impact of COVID-19 in causing anxiety, suffering from illness, loneliness, depression, and causing death, among others. If not properly addressed through effective measures and policy, the impact of the COVID-19 on the legal, economic, and health spheres would have severe consequences. Therefore, it is recommended that all the stakeholders, especially the government of Saudi Arabia should effectively and efficiently address the legal, economic, and health impacts of COVID-19. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee ESJ, Italy.
ABSTRACT
In the recent time, coronavirus (COVID-19) becomes an emerging area of research especially in exploring its effects from multidimensional perspectives such as health, educational and economic perspectives. More importantly, there is an insufficient academic research in connecting the impact of COVID-19 with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria despite the fact different countries of the world such as US, UK, Canada, and China etc. have been making tremendous effort in addressing the economic impact of COVID-19. The primary objective of this paper is to explicitly make a shift by building a comprehensive theoretical basis for the impact of COVID-19 on SMEs in order to chat a forward for post-COVID-19 economy recovery to thrive in the country. This study used secondary data to gather vital information by exploring available materials or literatures in this regard. The findings of this paper indicated that, recent study provides health implication of COVID-19 which has overwhelmingly explained by World Health Organization (WHO). Hence, this paper argues that appropriate measures should be provided especially by giving loan support to SMEs in expanding and strengthening the existing and new business opportunities as response to the impact of post-COVID-19 economy recovery in the country. It is therefore suggested that collaboration between SMEs leaders and the government have vital roles to play especially through the activities of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in providing platform for inclusion of digitization into SMEs or business operation in the country. © 2020, Academy of Strategic Management Journal. All Rights Reserved