Abstract
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the globe, entrepreneurs, their ventures and societies face unprecedented challenges. Entrepreneurship fosters the innovation needed not only to take advantage of new opportunities, boost productivity and create employment, but also to address the economic shockwave triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Slovenia, as a small open economy, is particularly vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic. Therefore, the main objective of the paper is to analyse and compare how the entrepreneurial sector responded to the first lockdown situation in Slovenia. The data will be obtained from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor database and the results will be compared with European countries. The question is whether the response of the entrepreneurial sector was to some extent dependent on the response of the government. The results allow a first approximation of the rapid changes that entrepreneurs have to face in order to adapt to the new scenario and prevent the deterioration of the economy or its reconstruction. Government policies need to be adapted to the economy's developmental level and depend on the type of entrepreneurship that needs to be encouraged. Policy makers need to create coherent, holistic and conducive frameworks for entrepreneurs to thrive in a post COVID -19 world. In sum, there is much potential for small businesses to contribute to the “post-covid economy”, especially if they are empowered through targeted support measures.
Highlights
The COVID‐19 pandemic remains one of the most significant crises of the modern era (Alon, Farrell and Li, 2020)
The entrepreneurship ecosystem, which encompasses many different stakeholders that have an impact on entrepreneurial activity, is an important part of this business environment
The environment influences both the emergence and development of entrepreneurship; identifying policies that lead to appropriate levels of entrepreneurial activity is a significant challenge (Bosma 2012, 35)
Summary
The COVID‐19 pandemic remains one of the most significant crises of the modern era (Alon, Farrell and Li, 2020). Governments and policymakers are trying to utilize entrepreneurial thinking as a way of responding to the crisis. This policy orientation is due to the huge impact that COVID‐19 has had on business and society. Encouraging entrepreneurship will be central to multiple governments around the world for the foreseeable future, especially considering the significant negative impact on economies due to the pandemic. Policymakers around the world have grappled with the question of how to implement policies that protect the health of citizens while encouraging economic development Such a task is not easy, as the contrasting needs of multiple stakeholders need to be considered. The results provide a first approximation of the rapid changes that entrepreneurs have to face in order to adapt to the new scenario and prevent the deterioration of the economy or its reconstruction
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