Exploring Small Medium Enterprise (SME) owners’ resources for resilience

Abstract

Resilience can be defined as the aptitude to recover from unexpected events and sustain an acceptable level of competence. In contemporary times, it is irrefutable that every form of business and company must possess resilience. Some businesses, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), are not as robust and will fold under pressure. Certain owners experienced failure due to their insufficient awareness, which hindered their ability to demonstrate resilience. Moreover, the insufficiency of financial resources and limited access to necessary assets significantly contribute to the ineffectiveness of business activities. This study aims to explore how the resources of SME owners add to the resilience of businesses. The most common sources of resilience amongst the owners appear to be a combination of adaptation and social support. Regarding owners’ adaptability, most business owners make efforts to adjust to the prevailing circumstances due to the occurrence of crises and disruptions in business operations. This study identified a range of social support mechanisms available to owners within diverse organizational structures. These mechanisms include support from individuals external to the company, social interactions with newly acquainted individuals, as well as internal and external relationships with individuals within the organization and potential collaborators if required. The study used purposive sampling, specifically targeting a limited sample size of five SME owners in Kedah. The structured interview serves as the primary method for collecting data. Subsequently, the textual data was transcribed to facilitate analysis through a coding procedure. Therefore, themes will be employed to link certain facts.