Challenges faced by smes during the covid 19 pandemic

Abstract

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was first identified in December 2019 and considering its severity, on 30th January 2020, World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it as a “public health emergency of international concern” and following it, the cases exponentially grew worldwide. On 11th March 2020, it was declared a “pandemic” by WHO. COVID-19 has ruined the Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) in developed and developing countries without any lucid differences. From a large corpus of studies, SMEs are the prime victims of COVID-19 since the resources such as finance and other resources that SMEs hold are not sufficed in comparison to large-sized enterprises. This study aimed at exploring the challenges faced by SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study anchored to review empirical evidence, policy documents, research studies, government reports and other relevant documents that are available on open database. COVID-19 is an unprecedented pandemic which instigated a significant economic global shock. Most SMEs regardless of countries, culture, and the nature of businesses were severely hit by COVID-19 pandemic. Albeit, there was a huge number of studies undertaken in the context of COVID-19 and the performance of the SMEs, many further studies that are discussed at the end of this study are warranted to fill in the lacunae left by earlier studies. On balance, several research studies reported that the current pandemic is much worse than all other financial crisis during the last five decades. COVID-19 pandemic has put millions of small and medium-sized enterprises at risk and shaken the world in an unprecedented way.