Managerial Competencies &amp; Polish SMEs’ Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Insight

Marek Bodziany,Anna Visvizi,Zenon Zamiar,Zbigniew Ścibiorek

doi:10.3390/su132111864

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and its implications have had a devastating impact on the business sector worldwide, especially on the SMEs’ sector. By highlighting the evolution, and so the specificity, of the Polish SMEs’ sector, by reference to the concept of learning organization, this paper queried the sources of the Polish SMEs’ unsatisfactory response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications. A survey (n = 147) conducted among a sample of Polish SMEs revealed that the Polish SMEs, in general, did not recognize the salience of managerial skills in building their capacity to withstand a crisis. Creating growth opportunities, rather than accumulating and operationalizing their organization’s knowledge, were stressed as the way of navigating challenges. This paper offers an insight into selected factors that influenced Polish SMEs’ sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, and suggests some ways of addressing problems thus identified.

Highlights

Drawing from the outcomes of a series of interviews and a questionnaire, this this paper offers an insight into the specific factors that may have influenced the Polish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)’ ability to respond to challenges inflicted in their external environment by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic
The out in three stages based on the triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods
Among the indicated reasons for improvement, they most often identified the internationalisation of knowledge and managerial skills, which were seen as the primary determinant of economic success and stability on the market

Summary

Objectives

The objective of this paper is to identify factors that may have led to the Polish SMEs’ sector relative inability to respond to the crisis situation efficiently. The objective of this paper was to offer an insight into specific developments in the

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion