ABSTRACT
According to the significant impacts of social media and the internet on all facets of our lives in general and the business world in particular, many business owners and entrepreneurs who are looking to expand their clientele or start their own ventures have moved to the virtual world, particularly when they want to advance their careers. For the reasons mentioned above, this article aims to ascertain how social media networks impact business operations, with a focus on how they affect entrepreneurship growth. Facebook and Instagram are the two most useful social media platforms. The findings indicate that Facebook and Instagram have a significant impact on increasing entrepreneurship and household income in Jordan. © 2023 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
This study seeks to explore the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the business resilience of SMEs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as an emerging economy, and specifically in Dubai, a thriving global business hub. Our objective is to examine the challenges experienced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in this region and how business leaders respond to the unprecedented crisis to stay afloat. We obtained rich descriptions from 26 respondents comprising SME owners and managers, using semi-structured interviews and a reflective process model to discern different aspects of business volatility, leadership roles, and financial management. All respondents endured the crisis periods by implementing numerous changes and initiatives to explore new norms of working, uncharted business territories, fulfill current projects, and develop innovative solutions and diversification in their businesses. Many have turned challenges into opportunities, progressing successfully through the three challenging periods of crisis using diverse approaches to stay resilient. The paper concludes with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications and future research directions.
ABSTRACT
PurposeThe purpose of this study is to assess small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) owners' intentions to participate in waqf, involving two countries, which are Malaysia and Indonesia, using the theory of planned behavior. SMEs are the backbone of many economies, representing 95% of all companies worldwide and accounting for 60% of employment. Based on this fact, this paper analyzes the influence of religiosity, knowledge and attitude to predict the intentions of SMEs' owners in waqf participation in Malaysia and Indonesia.Design/methodology/approachData were randomly obtained from 175 SMEs owners from Malaysia and Indonesia with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) used for analysis.FindingsThe empirical analysis data suggest that knowledge and attitude show a significant impact on the intentions of SMEs' owners to participate in waqf, while religiosity does not have a significant impact on the intentions of Malaysian and Indonesian SMEs' owners to participate in waqf.Practical implicationsThis study aims to assist SMEs in Malaysia and Indonesia to formulate appropriate strategies and marketing using waqf for the sustainability of SMEs which represent more than 90% of business establishments in both countries. The strategy is a necessity, especially because the government is targeting to promote a sustainable Islamic financial system, improve governance policy and halal industry for SMEs, strengthen the development of Malay Reserve land, providing as financial independence to higher learning institutions and invest in digitalization and advanced technology through waqf funds. Therefore, both countries should take the initiative to provide training to equip SMEs with extensive knowledge through multiple platforms to further encourage their participation in waqf.Originality/valueBecause of the increasing interest in waqf participation both in Malaysia and Indonesia, this study claims three essential contributions. First, it aims to examine the intention of SMEs in waqf participation among the business owners in Malaysia and Indonesia. Second, the study findings are expected to benefit the development of literature in accordance with Islamic social finance, particularly waqf. Third, this study provides an insight into the inclusive knowledge and attitude of SME owners and their intention to participate in waqf.
ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic had an unequal impact across businesses and communities and rapidly accelerated digital trends in the economy. What role, then, did website use play in community resilience and small business outcomes? This article examines a new source of population data on domain name hosts to provide a unique measure of digital economic activity within communities. Seventy-five percent are commercial, including online-only, brick-and-mortar, small, and microbusinesses. With geolocated data on 20 million US domain name hosts, we investigate how their density (per 100 people) affected economic outcomes in the nation's largest metros during the pandemic. Using monthly time series data for the 50 largest metropolitan areas, the domain host data is merged with the US Census Small Business Pulse Surveys and Chetty et al.'s Opportunity Insights data. Results indicate metros with higher concentrations of businesses with an online presence experienced more positive economic perceptions and outcomes from April to December 2020. This high-frequency, granular data on digital economic activity suggests that digitally enabled small and microbusinesses played an important role in local economic resilience and demonstrates how commercial data can be used to generate new insights in a fast-changing environment.Plain English SummaryNew data show websites were a resource for small business and community resilience in Covid-19. While some studies have shown how digital technologies helped businesses during the pandemic, little research has examined how website use during this time affected communities and their small businesses. Data on the number of domain name hosts (per 100 people) provides a measure of the prevalence of website use in a community. Seventy-five percent of these domain name sites are commercial, primarily small, and microbusinesses. We examine economic outcomes for the 50 largest metros from April to December 2020, including credit and debit card spending, small business revenues and openings, and the perceptions of small business owners. With monthly data and across multiple measures, we find that this digital economic activity positively affected the resilience of communities and small businesses. These findings suggest that policies for an inclusive and effective recovery should consider support for digital skills and effective website use for small and microbusinesses.
ABSTRACT
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to augment the present literature on the relationship between relative financial deprivation (RFD), financial anxiety (FA), access to Islamic financing (AIF) and financial satisfaction (FS) of micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) owners. Principally, the study examines the moderating role of AIF on the RFD–FS and FA–FS relationships.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative survey approach was used to collect data through self-administered questionnaires from MSME owners. Partial least square (PLS) structural equation modelling (SEM) version 3.2.7 was used to analyse 208 retrieved questionnaires.FindingsThe results confirm that the RFD–FS relationship is negatively significant, but the FA–FS relationship is not significant. However, the direct relationship between AIF and FS is positively significant. Conversely, AIF failed to moderate the RFD–FS and FA–FS relationships.Practical implicationsThe study specifies that the existence of RFD will decrease the FS of MSME owners, and therefore, RFD should be eliminated at all costs. However, the greater the AIF, the stronger will be the FS of MSME owners. Thus, policymakers and owners of MSMEs should emphasize on AIF to foster FS. Nevertheless, AIF could not redirect the negative impact of RFD and FA on MSME owners' FS.Originality/valueThis study, to the best of the authors' knowledge, is the first to examine the moderating role of AIF on the RFD–FS and FA–FS relationships among MSME owners. Notwithstanding the importance of small business owners for economic development, the literature on MSME entrepreneurs FS has been neglected. This study also uncovers new theoretical knowledge by revealing the inability of AIF to alter the RFD–FS and FA–FS relationships.
ABSTRACT
Studies on the application of service-learning with an emphasis on heritage learners are still emerging. Using a critical service-learning approach, I describe how the integration of a service-learning project showed heritage learners of Spanish the need for people with their bilingual abilities. Specifically, I examine the impact of service-learning and critical language pedagogies on students' perception and appreciation (or lack thereof) of their linguistic abilities. A qualitative analysis of self-reported answers to a biographical questionnaire and a final guided reflection, revealed that heritage learners not only gained confidence in their linguistic skills but also advanced their knowledge of the language and cultures while challenging and disrupting inequities that exist in a Latinx community. This study contributes to an emerging literature on the application of critical service-learning approaches to service-learning in heritage language learners' courses by showing the benefits and challenges of incorporating a project that sought mutual benefits for all stakeholders involved. It also contributes to documenting ways to create access to service-learning during the pandemic and how service-learning projects can be incorporated in courses offered virtually only. AATSP Copyright © 2023.
ABSTRACT
Following the incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma, his supporters were angered, which resulted in riots and looting in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng provinces. With South Africa already reeling from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the unexpected unrest caused further devastation to the country. This paper aimed to encourage and assist fellow South Africans in understanding the devastation and lasting effects caused by the unrest. Therefore, the engagement in civil unrest in such magnitudes can be avoided for the country's wellbeing. In light of this paper's purpose, this study collected data through the means of desktop research. This meant extracting information from journals, news reports, internet sources and scholarly publications. Based on the literature collected and analysed, it was deduced the riots and looting in July 2021 have negatively affected the South African economy and businesses, in particular small businesses. Some of the main factors depicting this impact include the following insights. An estimated 150 000 jobs were at risk within the KZN region alone. In terms of small businesses, they accounted for 89% of businesses impacted in the two provinces in which the unrest took place. More so, all together, small firms on a monthly basis stood to lose an amount of R3.4 billion in the attempt to resume business operations. This led to many small businesses facing closure. Regarding the economy, the unrest caused the rand to depreciate by 2.4%, which has adverse short and long term effects on the South African economy. These findings are critical as they provide insight into South Africa's current circumstances and what could be expected in the years to come. The main recommendation made in this paper advocated that small businesses adopt a mindset of anticipation and containment. A mindset of anticipation requires constant identification of all potential emergencies and problems, while a mindset of containment entails the embracement of adaptability and flexibility when responding to a crisis. Therefore, the adoption of an anticipation and containment mindset aids in the development of capabilities to deal with loss and commitment to resilience.
ABSTRACT
The impacts of COVID-19 are expected to shutter business performance globally. Though, very little early evidence on the impacts is recorded currently. Small business owners are expected to be hugely impacted compared to larger business counterparts. This is a result of limitations in financial capabilities, skills, and human resources. Small and Mid-size Enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in the resilience and sustainability of economic growth globally. An early-stage loss to business activity as a result of COVID-19 has significant implications for future economic inequality, income losses, and policy. This has triggered research into sustainability measures suitable for business maturity and to improve operational performance. Research is addressing issues ranging from developing a digital platform suitable for the collection of systems and automating its processes. This study complements publications that develop a technological and digital landscape by further expatiating on digital transformation issues and smart operational implementations in the context of SMEs. This study initiates by systematically identifying relevant contemporary publications on SME digitalization using the Scopus database. The documents are then reviewed by focusing on the crucial factors and current systems that influence the process of digital transformations for SMEs. The results facilitate sustainable business value and are crucial as a reference document that guides SMEs for future smart operational implementations. Copyright, American Society for Engineering Management, 2022.
ABSTRACT
PurposeThe paper aims to study hotel owners' perception of tourism in the five creative cities of India during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured, in-depth interviews (N = 30) and participant observation were the methods used for collecting qualitative data. Data was analysed using content analysis.FindingsThe findings reveal the effect of tourism on the psyche of small and medium enterprise hotel owners. Factors contributing to this anxiety are unpreparedness for the crisis, cash flow problems, failure to be flexible in this crisis, inability to leverage hotel's location and lack of hygiene habits.Research limitations/implicationsThe research illustrated a systemic lack of knowledge and training in the unorganized hotel sector in India which if addressed, could assist the hotel owners and staff in building trust toward tourists and a positive attitude toward the crisis.Originality/valueAs the study analyses the unorganized hotel sector in the Indian context, it provides useful insights for the Indian Government and hospitality industry to foster trust and positivity in this sector during the COVID-19 pandemic which could significantly contribute to its revival and psychological recovery of its stakeholders.
ABSTRACT
Adaptation and recovery are essential for businesses to survive crises and disasters. Drawing on the concepts of business resilience and hospitality service delivery practices, this study explored strategies employed by owners of Vietnamese homestay businesses for adapting to and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured interviews with 17 purposefully selected homestay owners were conducted during the pandemic. The thematic analysis of the data revealed three major strategies: adapting operational protocols, modifying products and service offerings, and reinstating the authenticity of the homestay experience. A conceptual model illustrating the transformations in homestay businesses was developed from the findings. As the study particularly revealed that the selected Vietnamese homestay businesses showed a strong capacity for adaptation, we discuss several factors influencing the implementation of adaptation and recovery strategies. This study contributes to the understanding of how micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises can adapt to external shocks and new externalities, and provides practical implications for homestay owners and stakeholders in relation to their post-pandemic business recovery.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Pet-friendly hotels are growing rapidly. The prevalence of pet adoption has largely resulted from the loneliness due to social distancing that happened during the Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Many hotels around the world aim to become pet-friendly to satisfy the growing demand. Hoteliers believe that the popularity of pet-friendly hotels will continue, as pet owners often treat pets as their kids. This study aims to investigate how pet-friendly hotels need to design and manage pet-friendly services and policies. Design/methodology/approach: Using grounded theory methodology, this research conducts interviews with 25 pet-friendly hotel managers from Hong Kong (HK). The study includes hotels from different hotel categories and classifications. It examines the conceptualization of pet-friendly service design, drawing on a service blueprint. Findings: Building on the service marketing and service blueprint literature, this research provides a synthesis that reflects how pet-friendly hotels can serve both guests with and without pets. The findings reveal that pet-owner's service expectations are formed on anthropomorphism, that is, an inclination of attributing human features to nonhuman entity. Hotel managers, and particular those who have pets personally understand better how pet-friendly service can be adapted to meet the expectations and requirements of pet owners while accommodating guests without pets. The market of pet-friendly hospitality is growing, with high profit potential from pet owners who are willing to spend generously. Research limitations/implications: Data were collected from selected pet-friendly hotels in HK through interviews with pet-friendly service providers. The research is qualitative and exploratory in nature. It aims to explore and examine the multilevel pet-friendly hospitality service design from a managerial perspective. This research enriches the literature on anthropomorphism theory, the design of pet-friendly services and the application of service blueprint. Practical implications: The research offers explicit suggestions for the design of pet-friendly hospitality services. A pet-friendly hotel service blueprint is developed. This can help managers to develop essential pet-friendly policies and service collaborations between internal departments and with external specialist organizations, maximizing the value for all stakeholders. Originality/value: The study explores a rapidly emerging market and scrutinizes its specific design requirements. It extends theoretical insights by enriching the anthropomorphism theory and broadening the conceptualizations of service blueprint based on anthropomorphism theory. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
The Sars-CoV-2 virus and the related public health measures have triggered a break in everyday life. Despite growing global protest movements against these health measures, ‘solidarity' was called for by civil society groups, affected businesses, and politicians as an intuitive mode of action in this crisis. Writing from Germany, we explore how in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis a specific discourse of solidarity and locality blossomed;namely a call to solidarity-based consumption. Using documentary photography, we discuss the shifts in the attribution of meaning and discourses through which consumption has been framed by small-shop owners in Linden, Hannover, Germany. In the paper, we explore the local geographies of boycotting and specifically the ways calls for boycotting are articulated by shop owners in the neighbourhood. We find that these calls became entangled with a specific neighbourhood identity. Through our photographic documentation we also find that purchases at local stores are now framed as a necessary act of local support. Finally, we reflect on the limitations of consumption as a strategy to overcome crisis and express solidarity.
ABSTRACT
Technostress is an important by-product of information and communication technologies (ICT). The technostress literature suggests focusing on specific dimensions of technostress, such as techno-overload, which describes when ICT usage demands to work faster and longer. However, only a few studies have dealt with the technostress of small business owners, let alone techno-overload. This is surprising since work overload in general has been identified as an important dimension of job stress for small business owners, and technostress has been identified as an important impediment for workers in general. The aim of the current study is to investigate the effect of techno-overload on well-being outcomes (as a composite measure consisting of physical well-being, mental well-being, sleep quality, burnout, and loneliness) using three data sets of French small business owners. Our results indicate a strong negative correlation between techno-overload and our composite measure of well-being for all three data sets. We interpret our findings for several different disciplines: information systems, small business owners and entrepreneurship, health and well-being, psychology and organization studies. Our data also allow for the identification of contextual effects–the COVID-19 pandemic–since one survey was conducted before, one at the start of, and one during the pandemic. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic enters year three, with no end in sight. Among hoteliers, small family run businesses have been among the hardest hit. We interview owners of small Iranian Eco-tourism lodges (Ecolodges). Using MAXQDA 2020 software, thematic analysis revealed 10 main themes, condensed into five discussion topics. Stakeholder theory shapes our discussion of findings, revealing roles of internal and external stakeholders. Findings also include the reactive and innovative strategies ecolodges use to stay open and generate cash flow, the importance of stakeholder communications and accessing up-to-date government rules, the value of constant learning, and H.R. practices that assure stakeholders' well-being.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic could be considered as a career shock for employees in different industries around the world. The aim of this research was to gain insight into the dynamics of Serbian small business owners' career shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic by using personal construct psychology (PCP) as a theoretical framework. We conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with 9 small business owners on two separate occasions and analyzed their personal stories. The data were collected during the most restrictive lockdown in Serbia in April 2020 and again at the end of June 2020 when the number of the people infected was on a rapid rise. The reaction to the career shock caused by the pandemic can be understood by analyzing transitions (how people perceive career shocks), people's coping strategies and the way in which their dependencies were dispersed. This study contributes to understanding the career shock issue by viewing it through the lens of the personal construct theory. © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
ABSTRACT
This article explores how Bangladeshi immigrants who run and own restaurants in the West Midlands of England (UK) participated in forms of innovation in response to the challenges created by COVID-19. Contributing to debates on innovation and diversification in the ethnic minority entrepreneurship literature, we explore through qualitative interview data how restaurant owners innovatively engaged with particular resources to secure their survival and longer-term futures in localised economies. This form of innovation is significant as it occurs among a population of entrepreneurs who have traditionally been portrayed as reluctant to innovate and embrace change. Our study therefore explores how a long-held culturally rooted reluctance to innovate intersects with a contemporary need to innovate for a demographic responding to the crisis. We theorise the form of innovation we identify as situated between a forced bricolage and a neoclassical approach to innovation. © The Author(s) 2021.
ABSTRACT
We analyze a large-scale survey of small business owners, managers, and employees in the United States to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on those businesses. We explore two waves of the survey that were fielded on Facebook in April 2020 and December 2020. We document five facts about the impact of the pandemic on small businesses. (1) Larger firms, older firms, and male-owned firms were more likely to remain open during the early stages of the pandemic with many of these heterogeneities persisting through the end of 2020. (2) At businesses that remained open, concerns about demand shocks outweighed concerns about supply shocks though the relative importance of supply shocks grew over time. (3) In response to the pandemic, almost a quarter of the firms reduced their prices with price reductions concentrated among businesses facing financial constraints and demand shocks;almost no firms raised prices. (4) Only a quarter of small businesses had access to formal sources of financing at the start of the pandemic, and access to formal financing affected how firms responded to the pandemic. (5) Increased household responsibilities affected the ability of managers and employees to focus on their work, whereas increased business responsibilities impacted their ability to take care of their household members. This effect persisted through December 2020 and was particularly strong for women and parents of school-aged children. We discuss how these facts inform our understanding of the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and how they can help design policy responses to similar shocks. © 2022 INFORMS.
ABSTRACT
The state has taken center stage during the COVID-19 pandemic in unanticipated ways. Rescuing private companies with public money exemplifies this, highlighting substantial state interventionism amidst a fairly dominant discourse of our times: that of the "neoliberal state." In this article, we focus on how owners of micro-businesses in Croatia constructed state practices during the COVID-19 pandemic and how interactions with the state prior to the pandemic contributed to these constructions. We reflect on the state as a historically embedded social relation that is understood, experienced, and felt. Drawing on interviews, we develop three themes that illustrate the layered and wrought relationship between business owners and the state, as they understand it to "exist"-state-mediated constructions of business owners: tycoons and heroes; frustrating state practices; contradictory images-the benevolent state. The pervasiveness of the state is reflected in how the post-socialist state has shaped professional identities in the business sector, in the overwhelmingly negative emotional landscape state practices seem to propel, but also in hints of state benevolence during the COVID-19 pandemic. The identified nexus of emotions in relation to state practices-exasperation, disappointment, indignation, gratitude-and their historical embeddedness are a strong indication of how present-day constructions of the state are an expression of "accumulated history." Based on their experiences with state practices, our interlocutors construct the state as corrupt, incompetent, inefficient, uncaring, coercive, only on occasion benevolent, and in a highly affective register as "unnecessary," while also expressing a desire for a state that "cares," particularly in disaster settings.
ABSTRACT
Despite the evident upsurge of e-commerce (EC) over the past decades, the peak of online demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the huge involvement of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the online businesses to survive, the extant literature has neglected to analyse how MSEs orchestrate their resources between internal and external investments. Past studies, also in the case of SMEs, have tended to adopt a more firm-centric perspective focusing on the organisational conditions that determine firms' performance after the usage of EC, failing to explore the inter-organisational relations between MSEs and other actors in their ecosystem. Indeed, as MSEs may suffer from liability of smallness and lack of resources, they may rely more than other actors on the nexus of relations that emerge within the digital ecosystem generated through the usage of EC platforms. By relying on 37 interviews with owners or managers of MSEs operating in the food and beverage industry, we investigate the dynamics of resource distribution between MSEs and the other actors in the EC ecosystem. We identified the changes in interdependencies, the information asymmetries, and the power imbalances related to the interplay between MSEs and other actors within the EC ecosystem.
ABSTRACT
The trade-off between desirable public health outcomes and undesirable economic outcomes of anti-pandemic measures forces policy makers everywhere to seek the right combination of measures to balance the public health concerns against employment and income considerations. This article describes a novel input–output approach to assessing economywide costs of shutting down tourism and related sectors to curb the spread of COVID-19. Our framework allows for a decomposition of the total effects of shutdowns into sectoral output losses resulting from (i) suspension of the delivery of inputs to other sectors, (ii) termination of the demand for inputs produced by these sectors, and (iii) the interruption of payments to the owners of factors of production employed in the sectors ordered to shut down. We illustrate the use of this methodological framework to measure and decompose the effects of recent shutdown orders issued in Turkey, a country of major tourism activity.