Rethinking of Strategy Defending Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 is an unusual scary virus and surprisingly affects the world economy. The condition demands that various countries in the world apply containment policies combined with various public health measures and make economic activities paralyzed, especially for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are considered to have potential innovation capabilities and can create new market opportunities, so governments should consider measures to relieve the burden of SMEs to stay afloat and keep growing during a pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to rethink the strategy of maintaining SMEs during a pandemic in the hopes that if such a situation occurs in the future then this strategy can be applied. This paper covers strategies from various countries that successfully retain SMEs during a pandemic. Qualitative methods with secondary data sources obtained from official government websites, media, economic bulletins, and international journals related to SMEs. This paper is expected to contribute to various countries to maintain SMEs, especially in countries whose economic growth has paralyzed the impact of the pandemic.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on selected areas of a management system in SMEs

“…The study by Kornelius et al (2020) emphasises a necessity to create effective strategies that would support SMEs during the pandemic, and that would also focus on other aspects apart from the elimination of negative impacts. This study covers strategies from various countries that successfully retain SMEs during a pandemic.…”

“…The negative impacts of the pandemic on the countries' economies significantly depend on the structural aspects of economies and the current socio-economic conditions (Mazzanti et al, 2020). The pandemic crisis considerably deteriorated economic, business and investment environments, the companies massively dismissed their employees and became insolvent, that resulted in a jeopardise of the financial sector, and they also deferred their expenditures and investments (Gray, 2020;Kar acsony, 2020;Kornelius et al, 2020). Consequently, the pandemic crisis may have significant impacts on the countries' economies in the future.…”

Collaborative governance in handling natural and non-natural disasters based on the perspective of public administration: Evidence from Indonesia

“…Further, the government, business actors, and partners trust each other, facilitate, and even provide incentives to maintain the sustainability of the business. In the collaborative process, the government, business actors, and partners have the same goal to get out of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (Kornelius et al, 2020). The business actors depend on the government and partners.…”

Implementation of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Policy during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Sidoarjo

“…Hambatan ini, sangat perlu diperhatikan oleh Pemerintah, hal ini dikarenakan pemerintah berperan untuk menjaga UMKM demi kestabilan perekonomian di Indonesia di masa pandemi (Kornelius et al, 2020) . Pada peraturan ini dijelaskan bahwa pemerintah memberi bantuan dana atau dalam bentuk uang bagi pelaku UMKM sejumlah Rp 2.400.000,00 (dua juta empat ratus ribu rupiah) dengan kriteria tertentu yang telah ditentukan dan diberikan secara langsung melalui rekening penerima BPUM (Lumempow et al, 2021).…”