Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Retail SMEs Business Management
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48132/uniebr.378Keywords:
SME, resilience, COVID-19, retail, managementAbstract
Retail SMEs, mainly local and physical, have been one of the most affected businesses during the COVID-19 crisis and yet considered the lifeblood of the European economy. In this paper, we undertake an introductory analysis of the situations that SME retailers have endured. After the analysis of the characteristics of the crisis for retail SMEs, we conclude with three characteristics that companies must foster in such extreme conditions: Resilience, digitalization, and empathy. We propose a framework that gathers, from a point of view of management and organization, some guidelines that can help retail SMEs to assess and improve their responsiveness to the crisis and build new strengths to face the post COVID-19 transformation and subsequent crisis. Together with these reflections, we finally propose some management suggestions and further lines of research.
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