Abstract
This study contributes to the emerging stream of the literature on the COVID-19-related risks and their impact on businesses’ performance. The growing evidence within is, however, missing the uniqueness of country-level settings, as well as lacking the voice of SMEs solely. The extant literature provides some evidence on SMEs’ vulnerabilities to the crisis, but it commonly compares SMEs with large firms. To cover this gap, the main aim of this study is to analyze the perception of COVID-19 interruptions by various groups of Polish SMEs. Thus, this work adds primarily by revising the perceptions of COVID-19 risks, given the heterogeneity of SMEs if we consider their size, age, legal form of organization and status of a family firm. Based on the survey results on SMEs operating in Poland, we employ ANOVA and k-means ranks to provide strong evidence that COVID-19’s impact was perceived as more interruptive by micro and very young firms, as well as by the firms that perform as sole proprietorships. We have also found evidence that family firms do not differ from non-family ones in the perceptions of COVID-19 impacts.
Highlights
SMEs Heterogeneity: Evidence fromWe are currently observing the severe and unprecedented interruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak
The COVID-19 Interruptions and Business Characteristics In Table 3 we present the summary of the results of non-parametric ANOVA, to highlight the interesting pattern that emerges from the analysis of the differences between the COVID-19 interruptions, given the business characteristics of interest
We studied several channels of COVID-19 interruptions from the perspective of SMEs operating in Poland
Summary
We are currently observing the severe and unprecedented interruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. It is first and foremost a human tragedy. It is having a growing adverse impact on the economy. In 2020 the global economy experienced the deepest recession since the end of World War II, with a 4.3% contraction in the global real. Severe economic downturns are expected across the globe in the forthcoming years. Mechanisms underlying these downturns are complex and multidimensional; it is imperative to understand the factors that make some firms and organizations more resilient to the COVID-19 crisis than others
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