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Business and Economics
COVID-19 and SMEs: An umbrella review of systematic literature (2020–2024) and future directions for entrepreneurship
Introduction to the “The Entrepreneurial Landscape in the Post-COVID Era: Insights, Challenges, and Future Perspectives” special issue
Abstract
This special issue addresses the impact of COVID-19 on entrepreneurship. It builds on insights shared at the dedicated session – supported by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Post-COVID research grant (MTA PC-II-17/1/2022) – of the 2nd Danube Cup Conference in Belgrade in November 2023, featuring three papers presented there, along with four additional contributions. The goal of this issue is to advance scholarly understanding of post-COVID dynamics in entrepreneurship and share valuable findings with a broad academic audience. To provide a comprehensive overview of current research on this topic, we include an umbrella review examining the COVID-19 crisis' impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 2020 to 2024. Drawing on 26 systematic literature reviews identified through Scopus, Google Scholar, and Elicit, this review captures key challenges, strategies, and emerging trends affecting SMEs. Major research themes identified include resilience, supply chain management, digitalization, crisis management, and the financial impact of COVID-19.
Abstract
The study investigates the impact of negative economic changes on Hungarian consumption habits on a representative sample of 1,000 people during the post-COVID period, which we interpreted as the period after December 2021. The quantitative research shows that a significant part of the population was affected by the unexpected effects of the economic environment. The change in purchasing habits was driven by the search for promotions and value for money products. Regarding the place of purchase, the research showed that the share of online shoppers did not increase for the 12 product categories surveyed, while the role of discounters in offline purchases increased. The survey highlighted that a third of the population cannot afford to make large purchases, while at the same time avoiding loans. Two-thirds of the population's view of the future is quite pessimistic. In consumption attitudes, the first priority is the aforementioned “discounting”, while the second priority is saving money on packaging. Hungarians tend to save more on electricity and heating. Finally, the result of our cluster analysis is that we have been able to distinguish five consumer groups that are able to describe the main consumer attitudes in the post-Covid crisis period. The defined clusters are the following: Resistant, Bargain hunter, Conscious, Rationing and What you can afford is what you can get.
Abstract
This article examines the sports motivation and sports opportunities of people with physical disability in Hungary, filling a gap in the research area. A total of 122 people (76 athletes) participated in the questionnaire research. We supplemented the quantitative research with qualitative research, in which we assessed the experiences of sports leaders through expert interviews. As a result of the research, we have shown that gender affects participation in sports, but has no role in sports motivation. Furthermore, we have established that for athletes with reduced mobility, mostly external motivational factors are different. Intrinsic motivation is strongest in the case of paralympic athletes. The main reason for amotivation among non-athletes with reduced mobility is the lack of adequate sports facilities close to the place of residence. Most athletes get to the venue of their sporting activity by car alone. Lack of peers has also been found to be a common reason for amotivation among respondents. Organising inclusive and mixed sports events could be a solution to the problem, promoting involvement in sport and social integration.
Abstract
The aim of our research is to fill the research gap on how successful businesses have been affected by the challenges posed by COVID-19 regarding the resilience and adaptability of firms. Since 2016, the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE), with the collaboration of EY, selects a number of unlisted companies (BSE50) per year that have Hungarian roots and are considered successful based on their operations and ability to increase sales. We examined the impact of COVID-19 on profitability, liquidity, indebtedness and change in turnover or EBITDA based on four years (2018–2021) of financial data from 252 non-financial, unlisted companies. In addition to the descriptive statistics, a two-sample asymptotic z-test was used to compare the periods before and during COVID-19. We divided the BSE50 companies into Dynamics and Laggards based on the change in turnover between 2019 and 2020. The Dynamics of the pandemic have emerged from the challenging period of COVID-19 as real champions, taking advantage of their low level of indebtedness by making efficient use of loan possibilities. Even the Laggards were able to rebalance and consolidate their financial position by the second year of the pandemic. Our study is novel because we used data on Hungarian, non-financial, unlisted companies with successful management to examine the impact of COVID-19 on hard-hit firms as well as on firms in the winning branch.
Abstract
Enterprises prioritizing social issues over profit maximization can lead to value co-creation, especially in marginalized and unprivileged communities. In this regard, this paper explores underlying theoretical mechanisms that tie digitalization and value co-creation together for social entrepreneurship's development. The article aims to identify how digitalization enables value co-creation for social enterprises. We conduct multiple case studies, have 11 in-depth face-to-face interviews with social entrepreneurs from Azerbaijan and synthesize the findings from primary and secondary data. As a result, we reveal that digitalization enables value co-creation for social entrepreneurship through a new phenomenon, which we call Data-driven Social Co-creation (DSC), and its subcategories such as efficiency, resource mobilization, feedback loops and data utilization. Finally, we recommend the DSC framework which shows the relationship between digitalization and value co-creation in social entrepreneurship, and which is the main theoretical contribution to the social entrepreneurship literature. Additionally, we provide a research agenda on the respective research field.
Abstract
Although the entrepreneurial gender gap is decreasing in European economies, the obstacles faced by women entrepreneurs remain numerous and often differ from those encountered by men. The COVID-19 pandemic, and then the energy crisis, have made it even harder for women entrepreneurs to sustain their businesses and have added to the challenges of work and private life. Women entrepreneurs, among many others, had to face how to survive crises and adjust their businesses to new circumstances to become more resilient, remain competitive and sustainable in times of crises, and in particular to improve their digital skills. A new insight is crucial for more efficient entrepreneurial development for women. A cross-country research helps to identify the needs of women entrepreneurs and provide a solid basis for the development of tailor-made activities focusing on innovative and practical solutions to support the up-skilling and resilience of women entrepreneurs. Through a survey conducted with 608 women entrepreneurs from seven European countries, our basic question was how women entrepreneurs managed to get through and become resilient in times of crises. The focus of our analysis is digitalization: did the rapid digital transition help women entrepreneurs become resilient during turbulent times? Did the practicing of digitalization-based resilience strategies (including remote work, online sales and similar approaches) improve women entrepreneurs' operational efficiency and strength?
Abstract
The paper employs a cross-sectional data set comprising the main dimensions of the European Union's International Digital Economy and Society Index (I-DESI) and utilises grouping methods based on objective weights to evaluate the relative digital readiness of Hungary and other Central and Eastern European (CEE) member states of the EU. The objective was not to establish a total ordering (ranking) of the countries in the data set, but rather to identify the most appropriate means of grouping the CEE countries into homogeneous units, utilising multivariate statistical and decision-theoretical techniques (tiered DEA, partially ordered sets and clustering). Despite the disparate methodologies employed, the findings are consistent in that the CEE countries (including Hungary) exhibit a general resemblance to one another and demonstrate comparatively lower levels of digital readiness than Northern and Western European countries. The notable exception is Estonia, which exhibits a distinctive level of digital advancement.
Abstract
This paper aims to enhance the understanding of the influencing factors and consequences of feedback, with a particular focus on brand outputs and co-creation, and to identify future research areas related to feedback. First, we propose to clarify definitions by introducing actionable customer feedback and drawing clear distinctions among synonymic concepts used in the literature. Then, we conduct a systematic literature review of 73 journal articles from the past two decades and synthesize their findings in the feedback, brand, and co-creation intercept. We also introduce a structure for feedback-related antecedents, moderators, mediators, and performance outputs. As a main contribution, we offer a visual representation of the findings of the systematic literature review to support scholars of customer behavior who are discovering their own directions according to their expertise. Through the use of visual tools such as tables and figures, we provide summary statistics reflecting the methodologies used in the literature, the industries involved, the geographical spread, and adjacent theories used. We also summarize the different positions of feedback within conceptual frameworks. We contribute to the literature by proposing and visually demonstrating new grouping dimensions of the antecedents, mediators, moderators and performance outcomes of the feedback literature. Finally, we recommend directions for future research on actionable feedback. We recommend studying the mediating and moderating impacts of demographics, gender, environmental characteristics, geography (especially developing economies), and B2B businesses on actionable feedback. The roles of trust and feedback in brand outputs, for example, brand value and brand equity, requires further investigation. Finally, we recommend exploring constructs in which feedback plays multiple roles in different positions.
Abstract
Recent research has suggested that unconditional convergence no longer exists. Thus, this study examined the income convergence among 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE-11) countries that joined the European Union in/after 2004 and Europe's four largest economies (Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy) by using panel data from 1994 to 2019. For this purpose, it employed the beta (β) and sigma (σ) convergence approaches to analyze the dynamics of economic growth. Based on the findings, in 1996, the four largest European economies had a higher capital–labour ratio and GDP growth than CEE-11. However, by 2019, the patterns reversed. As for the regression results, there was strong evidence of unconditional β convergence between 1999 and 2019, at an annual rate of 11%, with the σ convergence and the fixed effect models further supporting income convergence. Moreover, although brief divergence occurred during various financial crises, the overall trend was a significant convergence of CEE-11 with Europe's four largest economies through higher relative GDP growth. This study contributes to the economic growth theory of income convergence across countries and highlights the importance of regional integration in enabling sustainable catch-up growth.
Abstract
Digitalisation presents a significant challenge for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as they generally lack the required competencies and qualifications for a digital transformation. However, crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted how digitalisation can improve SME efficiency and unlock new markets. This paper aims to contribute to the empirical literature by analysing the factors influencing Hungarian entrepreneurs' activities and attitudes towards digitalisation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results are based on the quantitative analyses of Hungarian datasets of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) spanning 2021 to 2023, complemented by figures from a representative survey of SMEs in 2022. Our findings show that while nearly all SMEs utilise digital devices, adopting more advanced solutions remains low. Although the pandemic somewhat accelerated the digitalisation efforts, most entrepreneurs do not expect to use more digital solutions in the next six months. There is no consistent correlation between digitalisation and entrepreneurial motives, as the cluster analyses did not provide homogenous groups of entrepreneurs in the years analysed, so we can conclude that digitalisation efforts may be even among them. Thus, to overcome the challenge of digitalisation, policymakers should incentivise entrepreneurs to improve their digital skills and implement digital solutions.