The backbone of any economy can be found in its small and medium-sized businesses (MSME). Over the past decade, they have made a major impact on GDP growth. They play a crucial part in bringing progress to underdeveloped regions. Every economy relies heavily on its small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) bear the brunt of COVID-19. The goal of this study was to find out how SMEs respond to changes in their operating environment caused by COVID-19 by changing their business models with the help of digital technology.
Top1. Introduction
COVID-19 causes economic and societal damage worldwide. News publications call it the worst worldwide crisis since WWII. Despite being highly transmissible, this virus has expanded slowly globally. COVID-19 is a health emergency, but it's more. This is a systemic shock with long-term effects. This virus caused a short-term economic crisis that resulted to the closure of many enterprises, the loss of jobs for tens of millions of people, and other business effects. Small and medium-sized firms can and should help stop global unemployment, poverty, and food insecurity.
Almost every sector of the economy has been affected by COVID-19, and that includes small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Rapid shifts in customer preferences, product availability, and buying habits have forced small enterprises to adapt quickly. Many businesses have been deprived of not only direct consumers but also of the raw materials, inputs, and export opportunities they once had. Lockdowns and other forms of restricted movement have often rendered essential employees unavailable for their jobs. It's no secret that the economy as a whole has been hit hard by the recent job losses. Sadly, sales have dropped. There have been a lot of closures in supply networks overall. Demand for many goods and services made or sold by MSMEs has dropped even more because people are spending less because they don't know how the pandemic will turn out in the future.
Companies of all sizes, as well as national economies and societies around the world, are feeling the effects. As the pandemic has spread, it has disrupted international commerce and travel around the world. The greatest exporters and major actors in global value chains, including China, the European Union, and the United States, have either stopped or significantly reduced their cross-border commerce, causing widespread disruption to supply chains. Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been severely impacted by this, both as exporters and consumers of imported commodities. There has been a global decline in the number of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and many more are in danger of going out of business or are already in the process of closing. Numerous traditional patterns of sales, distribution, and consumption have been drastically and irrevocably transformed, and this presents a new challenge for surviving businesses. These shifts present difficulties for the owner-managers of such businesses, difficulties that are magnified in economies with a high concentration of micro and small enterprises. Long-term uncertainty about the future is also having an effect on businesses and customers. The “recovery” period that follows deconfinement has historically been associated with a temporary uptick in economic activity, but historical evidence suggests that this trend is unlikely to be maintained. Prevalent production and demand patterns, as well as distribution methods and customer tastes, have undergone significant shifts that are difficult to quantify. For some micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), a recovery may signify a “new normal,” while for others it may be a more challenging transition.
Estimating the complete impact of COVID-19 on the SME sector is difficult since it varies with infection and recovery rates, current travel limits in different locations, and governmental measures in different nations. Concern about COVID-19 has prompted comparable research and analysis of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), although up-to-date global statistics on this topic are few. Multiple government departments need to work together to solve the numerous issues that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face. Many of these are already well under way. However, authorities should not ignore the connection between competition policy and M&S enterprises' access to markets.