SMEs in Covid-19 Crisis and Combating Strategies: A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and A Case from Emerging Economy

Abstract

The paper intends to understand the research trends in "Covid-19 and SME" through a Systematic Literature Review and extract themes to explore the most affected areas of SMEs during the Covid 19 pandemic. Subsequently, the study attempted to understand how SMEs of a developing country strive during this crisis and recommend a resilience strategy framework to navigate SMEs in post-Covid situations. The authors extracted data from Scopus and Web of science to conduct a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), Extracted data from both databases were merged using R programming. Each extracted data has its uniqueness in an organization; we use converted web of science data to Scopus data to get the same tag in R programming. The study adopts a bibliometric analysis to present the research corpus in the domain of “Covid-19 and SMEs”. The cluster method of R programming has been used to usher the significantly affected areas of SMEs. Based on the cluster theme, an open-ended questionnaire was developed and used to interview 23 SMEs in Bangladesh for the case study. Nvivo-13.00 was used to extract the topic from the transcriptions of the interviews. The study reveals that Cash flow shortages and Supply Chain Disruptions are the critical constraints of SMEs. On the contrary, Digital transformation has gained momentum during this crisis. Enterprises that made the best use of digital platforms through technology, digital marketing, and innovations secured the peak of success and profitability. The study also recommends a critical dynamic, resilient strategy model to adopt in the "new normal" for successful navigation of SME business in the future. The study is the first of its kind that integrates SLR and a case study on the hurdles of SME owners during the Covid 19 crisis. Thus, it helps advance the understanding of the subject matter and enables the formulation of resilient strategies by policymakers and SME owners to navigate the business in any potential crisis in the future. The study has significant methodological contribution as it presents how to merge both Scopus and web of science data to conduct bibliometric analysis through R programming. Besides, it also contributes to using R's clustering method to extract themes for SME and Covid -19 domain. Finally, the study presents an overview of SMEs in crisis such as Covid-19 and a case study of a rising economy and its response measures. The Case study has been designed to concentrate on Bangladesh's SME owners and practical implications potentially limited to emerging Asian Economies.

Examining the Relationship between COVID-19 Related Job Stress and Employees’ Turnover Intention with the Moderating Role of Perceived Organizational Support: Evidence from SMEs in China

“…Only a few of those investigations have paid attention to the importance of searching for techniques to relieve such stress and reduce TI during the pandemic. Furthermore, we can observe that SMEs have been the worst affected sector during this particular pandemic situation, where a huge loss of jobs has been evident [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Therefore, there is a substantial gap regarding research investigations on the impact of COVID-19 related JS on TI, particularly within SMEs.…”

Investigating the Research Trends on Strategic Ambidexterity, Agility, and Open Innovation in SMEs: Perceptions from Bibliometric Analysis

“…Bibliometric analysis is a popular research method and has been approved by many scholars globally [12,27,28]. Its admiration is based on a series of characteristics such as the development, usage, and availability of a wide range of bibliometric software such as VOSviewer and Biblioshiny and scientific resources such as Scopus and Web of Science.…”

“…The scope of this paper is threefold. We sought to (i) to examine the relationship between ambidexterity, agility, and open innovation; (ii) to investigate the role of ambidexterity, agile practices, and open innovation in the development of a hybrid set of strategies for SMEs; and (iii) to highlight the key trends and characteristics of this new hybrid strategic model [11,12]. There are few studies that analyze this issue, and they often refer to large companies.…”

The Challenges to Developing Smart Agricultural Village in the Industrial Revolution 4.0.

“…The SLR method is often used to find a new concept and provide direction for further research. SLR documents are mainly downloaded from reputable databases such as Scopus and Web of Science (Hossain et al, 2022;Mengist et al, 2020). Most SLR studies utilize software installed on the operational computer system or web-based software such as Covidence, Rayyan, EPPI-Reviewer, CADIMA, etc.…”