PURPOSE: The new situation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many difficulties for companies worldwide. To combat the pandemic, governments have enforced lockdown and closure of businesses, and in response, companies have developed various reactive strategies to ensure their survival. The purpose of this study is twofold: to examine the impact of COVID-19 on firms and examine firm reactions towards the COVID-19 crisis. The study analyses the impact of COVID-19 on firm size, ownership type, and industry characteristics. Secondly, to analyze firm reactions based on four components: technological preferences, strategic behavior, management practices, and social networks. METHODOLOGY: This study employs a quantitative method, using a survey of 320 firm owners and managers conducted in Kosovo by the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business. FINDINGS: Findings suggest that income dropped significantly for SMEs based on the firm size. Based on industry characteristics, findings show that all industries have been influenced negatively. Regarding the ownership type, findings suggest that family firms are more affected by COVID-19 than non-family firms. Factor analysis suggests that the technological preferences, managerial practices and strategic behavior, and social networks effectively responded to the crisis derived from COVID-19. Findings also suggest that firms did not employ a single reaction (e.g., technological change) but combined several reactions where one reaction led to another reaction that proved effective and led to firm survival during the crisis. IMPLICATIONS: The implications of this study are as follows: firstly, this study examines the impact of COVID-19 and, at the same time, firm reactions to the crisis; secondly, contrary to previous studies, this study shows that all industries have been influenced negatively, including all SMEs; thirdly, this study shows that ownership type was an important factor concerning the impact of COVID-19, where family firms were influenced more than non-family firms; this is due to the distinct characteristic of organizational structure that family firms have, including the involvement of members of family firms. Last, this study shows that a single reaction of firms does not lead to survival, but the chain of reactions combined with dimensions shown above. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Despite growing theoretical and empirical literature about COVID-19 and firms, this study shows the impact and firm responses towards the crisis of COVID-19. Furthermore, focusing on the context of Kosovo, the study contributes to the challenges that firms face in different cultural and institutional settings.

The enforced lockdown and closure of businesses in response to the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in economic crises across the globe, bringing the attention to entrepreneurship and its importance to economic recovery. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on SME’s and the entrepreneurs’ policy preferences based on firm size and industry type. To achieve this, evidence from a Business Support Centre Kosovo’s (BSCK) survey involving 236 SME owners interviewed online is reported. Findings from SME survey suggest the problems with cash flow and reduction of customer demand, among others, are major problems faced by SME’s across all firm size groups and industry types. Findings from factor analysis clustered SME policy preferences into three groups: policy preferences related to financing and liquidity constraints, market related and tax preferences. This study discusses some policy and managerial implications urging the need for more nuanced and variegated understanding of the effect of coronavirus pandemic on SMEs.

Purpose This paper aims to determine the antecedents that affect higher education students' entrepreneurial intention and awareness in two developing economies (Turkey and Poland) and one transition economy (Kosovo). Design/methodology/approach This study uses a quantitative research approach based on a sample of 342 questionnaires. Using SPSS 23, AMOS and Process Hayes, this study tests research hypotheses using explanatory and confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis and mediation analysis. Findings The findings show that personal attitudes (PA), perceived behavioural control (PBC) and need for achievement (NFA) variables affect students' entrepreneurial intentions and alertness (EIA) in Turkey, Poland, and Kosovo. PA and PBC mediate the impact of NFA on EIA. In addition, analyses show that the country variable does not have a moderator effect on EIA, PA, NFA and PBC variables. The findings reveal that students' perceptions of EIA differ by country. Research limitations/implications The sample comes from a university in three countries; therefore, these results cannot be generalised to the entire population. In addition, the study was carried out with a cross-sectional study urging the need for a longitudinal analysis of the data, which may provide better results. Practical implications Results can benefit policymakers and higher education administrators for resource planning, organising educational curricula and strategic policy plans for building the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Originality/value The originality of this article is that it presents a model to reveal the effect of PA, PBC and NFA variables on EIA in three different countries.

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PurposeThis article examines the dominant research topics that guide the literature on women's entrepreneurship in family businesses.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used performance and scientific network mapping analyses from bibliometric techniques. Performance analysis was used to identify the most influential journals, authors, countries, co-citation, multidimensional scaling (MDS), hierarchical cluster (HCA) and document analysis to identify dominant research themes.FindingsThe research results show that studies on women's entrepreneurship in family businesses are gathered in three clusters. The studies in the first cluster focused on family succession and women's roles. The themes of the succession process, gender bias, leadership and entrepreneurship in the second cluster are intense. Finally, in the third cluster, the themes of women leaders and identity construction dominate.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, new conceptualizations of female entrepreneurship from family businesses emerge over time (example: “fementerpreneur”); accepting and using these words takes time. For this reason, the authors may have missed the newly emerged concepts in the field of family businesses in the search strategy. Second, although MDS results are widely used in bibliometric research, other forms of MDS analysis may reveal different groups and clusters. Finally, bibliometric analysis is based more on retrospective and dominant themes in the most cited articles, with a heavy emphasis on the most cited papers. Hence, new articles and contributions can be equally important.Originality/valuePrevious studies have not examined the subject of women's entrepreneurship in family businesses. By addressing this issue and setting the agenda for future research, the authors contribute to the literature on women's entrepreneurship in family businesses.