Corporate Preparedness for Pandemic Influenza: A Survey of Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies in Montgomery County, Maryland

Abstract

Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in this geographic region are currently not well prepared for pandemic influenza. Public health officials should offer more help, possibly in the form of a model small business preparedness plan, and collaboration between companies should be encouraged to foster sharing of preparedness plans.

Entrepreneurial Interventions for crisis management: Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic's impact on entrepreneurial ventures

“…Interestingly, even before the advent of COVID-19, researchers have published articles highlighting the possible effect that pandemics could have on small businesses. The pre-COVID-19 era publications indicate (a) A pandemic can cause the failure of entrepreneurial ventures [ 93 , 118 , 197 ], (b) Entrepreneurship has been identified as one strategy to reduce the unemployment crisis [ 120 ], (c) Entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship have been identified as a saviour of lives while investigating the Ebola pandemic crisis-ridden communities [ 119 ], and (d) Both entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship talk about proactivity, innovation, risk management, seeking and recognizing opportunities [ 119 ].…”

Intersections of small business mobility, adaptive capacity, and resilience during crises

“…Researchers and practitioners have long advocated for multi-hazard planning solutions and the value of anticipatory adaptation (Grimm 2013; Linnenluecke, Griffiths, and Winn 2012; Sahebjamnia, Torabi, and Mansouri 2015; Spillan and Hough 2003). Despite the significance of small businesses, there is little information on how they plan for or respond to pandemics (Burton et al 2011; Watkins, Barnett, and Links 2008a; Watkins et al 2008b). Previous research documents extremely low rates of preparation and response for previous pandemics (Rebmann et al 2013; Terry 2020; Watkins et al 2008b).…”

Eliciting lessons from Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) for natural disaster resilience planning and recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic:

“…Despite the significance of SMEs to the communities of which they are a part and the U.S. economy at large, there is little information on how they plan for, respond to, or learn from pandemics (Burton et al, 2011;R. E. Watkins et al, 2008;R. J. Watkins et al, 2008).…”