Survival strategies: Lessons Learned from Saudi Arabian firms during COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis has been one of the challenges that faced many businesses in the world. leading many firms to make changes in their strategies while other firms switched towards applying new strategies to survive the impact of this crisis. This study attempts to shed light on the survival strategies that were most used to practically rescue firms during the COVID-19 crisis. The study conducted a survey questionnaire that was distributed to Saudi Arabian firms' owners, managers, and employees to explore which strategies have assisted businesses to overcome negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The results of analyzed data showed that e-commerce and online selling was the most used survival strategy, while digital transformation strategy was ranked second, and innovation strategy came third. In the context of Saudi Arabian firms, this study contributes to literature by comprehending the impact of COVID-19 on Saudi Arabian firms and discovering the most used survival strategies to overcome COVID-19 crisis. This study can assist owners, managers to deal with future crises.