Understanding the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Small Businesses and Workers Using Quantitative and Qualitative Methods.

The COVID-19 pandemic has simultaneously exacerbated and elucidated inequities in resource distribution for small businesses across the United States in terms of worker health and the financial stability of both owners and employees. This disparity was further intensified by the constantly changing and sometimes opposing health and safety guidelines and recommendations to businesses from the local, state, and federal government agencies. To better understand how the pandemic has impacted small businesses, a cross-sectional survey was administered to owners, managers, and workers (n = 45) in the beauty and auto shop sectors from Southern Arizona. The survey identified barriers to safe operation that these businesses faced during the pandemic, illuminated worker concerns about COVID-19, and elicited perceptions of how workplaces have changed since the novel coronavirus outbreak of 2019. A combination of open-ended and close-ended questions explored how businesses adapted to the moving target of pandemic safety recommendations, as well as how the pandemic affected businesses and workers more generally. Almost all the beauty salons surveyed had to close their doors (22/25), either temporarily or permanently, due to COVID-19, while most of the auto repair shops were able to stay open (13/20). Beauty salons were more likely to implement exposure controls meant to limit transmission with customers and coworkers, such as wearing face masks and disallowing walk-ins, and were also more likely to be affected by pandemic-related issues, such as reduced client load and sourcing difficulties. Auto shops, designated by the state of Arizona to be 'essential' businesses, were less likely to have experienced financial precarity due to the pandemic. Content analysis of open-ended questions using the social-ecological model documented current and future worker concerns, namely financial hardships from lockdowns and the long-term viability of their business, unwillingness of employees to return to work, uncertainty regarding the progression of the pandemic, conflict over suitable health and safety protocols, and personal or family health and well-being (including anxiety and/or stress). Findings from the survey indicate that small businesses did not have clear guidance from policymakers during the pandemic and that the enacted regulations and guidelines focused on either health and safety or finances, but rarely both. Businesses often improvised and made potentially life-changing decisions with little to no support. This analysis can be used to inform future pandemic preparedness plans for small businesses that are cost-efficient, effective at reducing environmental exposures, and ultimately more likely to be implemented by the workers.

A Study of Career Shocks from the Perspective of Personal Construct Psychology: Small Business Owners in the Jaws of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Serbia

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.

Small business lending under the PPP and PPPLF programs

We use Call Report data to examine the effects of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the PPP Liquidity Facility (PPPLF) on small business and farm lending by individual commercial banks. As program participation was associated with small business lending, we adopt an instrumental variables approach to identify causal implications based on historical bank relationships with the Small Business Administration and the Federal Reserve's discount window. Our results indicate that both programs encouraged lending growth over the first half of 2020. However, while the PPP encouraged greater lending across all banks, only small and medium-sized bank lending growth was significantly related to participation in the PPPLF. © 2022

Banking infrastructure and the Paycheck Protection Program during the Covid-19 pandemic

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the US federal government distributed US$800 billion in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to small businesses to preserve employment. Since PPP funding was transmitted through private banks, the characteristics of the regional banking market may have unevenly affected the programme's reach. This paper examines how variations in market concentration and the presence of community banks contributed to PPP disbursement in US counties. It finds that greater regional banking market concentration correlates with fewer PPP loans, but this negative relationship is mitigated by a greater presence of community banks in highly concentrated markets. © 2022 Regional Studies Association.

Small Business and Livelihood: A Study of Pashupatinath UNESCO Heritage Site of Nepal

Small businesses in world heritage sites provide services to visitors and livelihood for residents. Besides the cultural and religious values promoted by these businesses, they also provide socioeconomic support to their owners. The Pashupatinath temple is known as Hindu's major religious and pilgrimage destination in South Asia. Hundreds of businesses around the temple provide services to visitors. This study evaluates the socioeconomic impacts of these small businesses around Pashupatinath temple. Using a survey of 110 businesses, binary logistic regression models find that the owners of larger businesses selling religious supplies in this area are more likely to own houses in Kathmandu and to be more satisfied with their businesses. The study also finds that businesses without permanent stalls faced severe hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study assessed the socioeconomic status of a business owner through house ownership in Kathmandu, and finds that small businesses operating in the premises of the religious heritage site of Pashupatinath temple have a positive relation to the livelihood of the business owners and their families. It concludes that small-scale business in world heritage sites directly contributes to local livelihoods and economies. © 2022 by the authors.

Banking Deserts and the Paycheck Protection Program

The Paycheck Protection Program was a highly unusual policy measure enacted to provide bridge capital to support small businesses coping with the dramatic downturn in demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By design, the program effectively required potential applicants to work through the bank with whom they had a relationship. Yet large swathes of the country are effectively banking deserts, which dramatically steepen the gradient for those regions' businesses seeking Paycheck Protection Program support. This paper tests the proposition that the exogenous distribution of banks effectively discriminated against those regions where banking services were limited, while also looking at whether loans were distributed to those areas with less dense employment opportunities and higher concentrations of small businesses. The authors find that areas with fewer banking services and lower employment opportunities were systematically disadvantaged in the Paycheck Protection Program distribution, while there were no significant flows to areas with higher rates of small businesses. © The Author(s) 2023.

The Effects of COVID-19 on U.S. Small Businesses: Evidence from Owners, Managers, and Employees

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.

Striving for a new normal after the Covid-19 pandemic: taking small businesses at Bangsaen Beach as an example

The Covid-19 pandemic interrupted Bangsaen Beach activities and disturbed livelihoods of small business operators. Before the pandemic, Bangsaen tourism experienced issues of beach quality degradation due to overcrowding, competitive vending, and lack of diversification. After the pandemic, the municipality imposed new regulations, reset zones to safeguard the public health, and jump-started the economy. The changing regulations created conflicts with vendors on zoning rearrangements and reduced sales. The author conducted a survey to investigate the beach activities, the local small business operations, and the local authority's regulation changes. The survey results indicated that Bangsaen needs alternative attractions to complement its beach activities and to help cope with traffic congestion. The results also find out the social disparity in the demography of the vendors, which calls for attention to gender aspects and inclusive facets in the social infrastructure development strategy. This study suggests that vendors collaborate collectively with the local government to challenge the appropriation of beach spaces and to create innovative tactics. In addition, destination management organizations need to strive for better collaboration with small business operators to help them adapt to the change and enter the formal economy.

Is technology neutral for MSEs? Interdependencies, information transparency and power imbalances in e-commerce ecosystems: Journal international de la gestion technologique

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.

Corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty during the Covid-19 pandemic: evidence from pharmacy practice

Purpose>In recent years, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has taken on a more prominent role in both large and small businesses because of its significant impact on various aspects of business performance. To date, a growing body of literature has demonstrated the mechanisms whereby CSR practices affect organizational outcomes;however, there has been little research examining how CSR practices contribute to customer loyalty within the pharmacy context. As such, this study aims to explore how CSR practices influence the loyalty of pharmacy customers, particularly in relation to the mediatory effects of customer-company identification (CCI) and customer trust.Design/methodology/approach>A survey questionnaire was developed and administered to collect the required data from the pharmacy context. The resultant data were subjected to exploratory factor analysis to identify the scale dimensions, followed by multiple regression analysis to test the hypotheses.Findings>Analysis of the results (n = 528) revealed that perceived CSR indirectly impacts loyalty through the mediatory effects of trust and CCI. All hypothesized effects were also confirmed via empirical testing.Originality/value>The findings of this research suggest that not only are CSR activities responsive to societal concerns, but they can also promote customer identification with pharmacies and strengthen customer trust, which can, in turn, lead to long-term customer loyalty.

Entrepreneurial business network and dynamic relational capabilities: a case study approach

PurposeTo further extend the understanding of the aggregating functions of an entrepreneurial business network, this paper attempts to explore the antecedents enabling the organisation of diverse entrepreneurs to engage in a collaborative inter-firm business network project. This paper also elucidates the development of the relational capabilities and performance of entrepreneurial business networks.Design/methodology/approachAn explorative, longitudinal case study design is employed to analyse an Italian agricultural business network, which comprised a group of local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using the network as the focus of analysis, the case study draws insights from key informants comprising the network management team and the entrepreneurs who make up the membership of the business network.FindingsThe results of the study provide critical factors for successful organisation of inter-firm engagement. Although these factors are not mutually exclusive, the results show that organising for inter-firm engagement in an entrepreneurial business network context positively influenced the network relational performance and entrepreneurs' innovation capabilities.Originality/valueThe paper extends current understanding of inter-organisational engagement and illuminates the antecedents enabling the development of network relational dynamics capabilities. The empirical results provide unusual insights into the aggregating roles of an entrepreneurial business network, giving practitioners practical insights into managing a successful inter-organisational collaborative project. Using the relevant theoretical frameworks, the study empirically tests the organisation solutions relevant to literature on inter-firm engagement in a business network context and addresses the organisation solutions' interrelationship and linkages to entrepreneurial network relational performance in terms of knowledge practice, information and resources sharing and innovation.

COVID-19 Workplace Mitigation Strategies and Employee Leave Policies Implemented during the Height of the Pandemic, United States, Fall 2020 and 2021.

COVID-19 workplace mitigation strategies implemented within US businesses have been effective at preventing disease and protecting workers, but the extent of their use is not well understood. We examined reported COVID-19 workplace mitigation strategies by business size, geographic region, and industry using internet panel survey data from US adult respondents working full- or part-time outside the home (fall 2020, N = 1168) andfull- or part-time, inside or outside the home (fall 2021, N = 1778). We used chi-square tests to assess the differences in the strategies used (e.g., masking and COVID-19 screening) and ANOVA tests to examine the group differences on a mitigation strategies summative score. Fewer COVID-19 mitigation strategies were reported by respondents in fall 2021 (compared to fall 2020) across businesses of different sizes and regions. The participants in microbusinesses (1-10 employees) reported significantly (p < 0.05) lower mitigation scores than all other business sizes, and the respondents in these businesses were significantly less likely (p < 0.05) to have paid leave than those in enterprises with >10 employees. The healthcare and education sectors had the highest reported mean score of COVID-19 workplace mitigation strategies. Small and essential businesses are critical to the US economy. Insight is needed on their use of mitigation strategies to protect workers during the current and future pandemics.