Evaluation of the Impact of Covid-19 on SMEs: Cross-Country Comparison

Year 2022, , 664 - 685, 01.12.2022

Nihan Öksüz Narinç

https://doi.org/10.17153/oguiibf.1092715

Abstract

Covid-19 is an external crisis with unclear economic consequences. However, it is well known that due to the nature of the pandemic, several countries' businesses have been severely harmed by lockdowns. This study attempted to explain how Covid-19 has changed the employment of small and medium businesses with various demographic variables for this purpose. Furthermore, business continuity and digitization were investigated. The study's data was collected from the Data for God project, which was run by the World Bank, the OECD, and Facebook. As a result of the research, more than half of the workers laid off due to COVID-19 could not be rehired for about two years. In terms of business continuity, only 46.2 percent of businesses believe they can continue operations for a year or more. In addition, digital sales decreased in some European countries during this period.

Keywords

SMEs, Cross-Country, Covid-19, Employment, Digitalization, Business continuity

Supporting Institution

No financial support has been received from any institution or organization.

Project Number

The article is not produced from any project.

Thanks

A special thank you to the Data for Good team and Kelsey Mulcahy on their behalf for their assistance and support in supplying the data for this study.

Covid-19'un KOBİ'ler Üzerindeki Etkisinin Değerlendirilmesi: Ülkeler Arası Karşılaştırma

Abstract

Covid-19, belirsiz ekonomik sonuçları olan bir dış krizdir. Bununla birlikte, pandeminin doğası gereği, birçok ülkenin işletmesinin karantinalardan ciddi şekilde zarar gördüğü iyi bilinmektedir. Bu çalışma, Covid-19'un çeşitli demografik değişkenlerle küçük ve orta ölçekli işletmelerin istihdamını nasıl değiştirdiğini açıklamaya çalışmıştır. Ayrıca iş sürekliliği ve dijitalleşme de incelenmiştir. Çalışmanın verileri Dünya Bankası, OECD ve Facebook tarafından yürütülen Data for God projesinden elde edilmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda COVID-19 nedeniyle işten çıkarılan işçilerin yarısından fazlası yaklaşık iki yıl süreyle yeniden işe alınmadığı ve iş sürekliliği açısından, işletmelerin yalnızca yüzde 46,2'si faaliyetlerini bir yıl veya daha fazla sürdürebileceklerdir. Ayrıca bu süreçte bazı Avrupa ülkelerinin dijital satışlarında azalma yaşanmıştır.

Keywords

KOBİ, ülkelerarası karşılaştırma, Covid-19, istihdam, dijitalleşme, iş sürekliliği

Project Number

The article is not produced from any project.

References

• Abdi, H.; Valentin, D. (2007), “Multiple Correspondence Analysis”, Encyclopedia of Measurement and Statistics, Vol. 2: 651–657. https://personal.utdallas.edu/~herve/Abdi-MCA2007-pretty.pdf
• Agresti, A. (2019), An introduction to categorical data analysis: Wiley.
• Alam, K.; Ali, M. A.; Erdiaw-Kwasie, M. O.; Murray, P. A.; and Wiesner, R. (2022), “Digital Transformation among SMEs: Does Gender Matter?”,Sustainability, Vol:14, No:1:535. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010535
• Amankwah-Amoah, J., Khan, Z., Wood, G. and Knight, G. (2021),” COVID-19 and digitalization: The great acceleration”, Journal of Business Research, Vol.136:602–611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.08.011
• Amel, E., Lee, D. and Singer, E. (2020), “Independent restaurants are a nexus of small businesses in the United States and drive billions of dollars of economic activity that is at risk of being lost due to the Covıd-19 pandemic”, https://blumenauer.house.gov/sites/blumenauer.house.gov/files/CL%20Economic%20Impact%20Report_RESTAURANTS%20Act.pdf, (Accessed: 14.01.2022).
• Cisco. (2020). A Snapshot of Eight of the World’s Leading Markets. https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/solutions/small-business/resource-center/small-business-digital-transformation.pdf, (Accessed: 14.12.2021).
• Clausen, S. E. (1998). Applied correspondence analysis: An introduction (Vol. 121). Sage.
• Cowling, M., Liu, W., and Zhang, N. (2017), “Did firm age, experience, and access to finance count? SME performance after the global financial crisis”, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Vol.28 No.1:77–100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-017-0502-z
• Dörr, J. O., Murmann, S. andLicht, G. (2021), “The COVID-19 Insolvency Gap: First-Round Effects of Policy Responses on SMEs”, SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3783768
• Drahokoupil, J.;Müller, T. (2021), “Job retention schemes in Europe: a lifeline during the Covid-19 pandemic”, SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3931230
• Data for Good. (2021). https://dataforgood.fb.com/.
• Gifi, A. (1990). Nonlinear multivariate analysis:Wiley.
• Gourinchas, P.-O., Kalemli-Özcan, Ṣ., Penciakova, V., and Sander, N. (2021). “COVID-19 and SMEs: A 2021 “Time Bomb”?” https://doi.org/10.3386/w28418
• Greenacre, M. J. (2007), Correspondence analysis in practice: Chapman & Hall/Crc.
• Gregurec, I., Tomičić Furjan, M., and Tomičić-Pupek, K. (2021), “The Impact of COVID-19 on Sustainable Business Models in SMEs”, Sustainability, Vol.13, No.3:1098. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031098
• Hatab, A. A., Lagerkvist, C., and Esmat, A. (2020) “Risk perception and determinants in small & medium‐sized agri‐food enterprises amidst the COVID‐19 pandemic: Evidence from Egypt”, Agribusiness, https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.21676
• ITC, (2020), “International Trade Center :COVID-19: The Great Lockdown and its Impact on Small Business”, https://www.intracen.org/uploadedFiles/intracenorg/Content/Publications/ITCSMECO2020.pdf, (Accessed:12.12.2021).
• Juergensen, J., Guimón, J., and Narula, R. (2020), “European SMEs amidst the COVID-19 crisis: assessing impact and policy responses”, Journal of Industrial and Business Economics,Vol.47, No.3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40812-020-00169-4
• Katz, R. L.; Callorda, F. M. and Jung, J. (2020), “Can Digitization Mitigate COVID-19 Damages? Evidence from Developing Countries”, Papers.ssrn.com. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3600829 (Accessed: 29.12.2021).
• Kassambara, A. (2017), Practical guide to principal component methods in R: Stdha.com.
• Nguyen, H. T. T.; Nguyen, T. T.; Dam, V. A. T.; Nguyen, L. H.; Vu, G. T.; Nguyen, H. L. T.; Nguyen, H. T.; and Le, H. T. (2020), “COVID-19 Employment Crisis in Vietnam: Global Issue, National Solutions”, Frontiers in Public Health, Vol. 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.590074
• OECD (2020). “Germany: Invest More in infrastructure, Digital Economy and Energy Transition for a Strong and Greener Recovery from COVID-19 Crisis” - OECD. Www.oecd.org. https://www.oecd.org/newsroom/germany-invest-more-in-infrastructure-digital-economy-and-energy-transition-for-a-strong-and-greener-recovery-from-covid-19-crisis.htm (Accessed : 25.02.2022).
• Sudan, T.; Taggar, R. (2021), “Recovering Supply Chain Disruptions in Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Through Transport Intelligence and Logistics Systems: India’s Experiences and Policy Options”, Frontiers in Future Transportation, Vol. 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/ffutr.2021.660116
• World Bank. (2021). https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/jobsanddevelopment/overview#1 (Accessed: 25.12.2021).