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Survival strategies of SMEs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: application of SEM and fsQCA

Muhammad Sabbir Rahman (Department of Marketing and International Business, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh)
Fadi AbdelMuniem AbdelFattah (College of Business Administration, A’Sharqiyah University, Ibra, Oman)
Surajit Bag (Department of Supply Chain Management/Information Systems, UIR Rabat Business School, Salé, Morocco)
Mohammad Osman Gani (Faculty of Business Studies, Bangladesh University of Professionals, Dhaka, Bangladesh)

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing

ISSN: 0885-8624

Article publication date: 18 January 2022

Issue publication date: 21 October 2022

2010

Abstract

Purpose

As a global pandemic, the COVID-19 crisis has profoundly affected the development of local firms, threatening the survival of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This study aims to present an integrated framework by investigating the impact of strategic tools (i.e. firms’ capability of business agility, marketing operational efficiency, optimisation of innovation capability [OIC], managing employees’ satisfaction and rethinking customers’ experience) on the survival strategies of SMEs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

The current study used data from managers of SMEs and conducted an asymmetrical analysis (i.e. structural equation modelling [SEM]) to investigate the factors influencing the survival strategies of SMEs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also applied an asymmetrical approach (i.e. fuzzy sets qualitative comparative analysis-fsQCA) to explore the causal recipes and analysis of the necessary conditions to identify the factors required to achieve the expected outcome.

Findings

Results from SEM support all hypotheses. Results from fsQCA with the same data set show that firms’ business agility and OIC are necessary conditions for SMEs’ survival strategies. The result from fsQCA also reveals multiple sufficient conditions to succeed SMEs’ survival strategies amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Practical implications

Findings prescribe how SMEs adapt to this vulnerable business condition by applying the strategic tools and recipes suggested for survival.

Originality/value

This research applied an innovative analysis to reveal necessary and sufficient conditions that conventional methods such as SEM have limited power. This pioneering research in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is considered novel in terms of the prescriptive strategic recipes offered to SMEs to adapt to and survive in the crisis caused by COVID-19.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge North South University (NSU) for awarding a research grant to conduct this research.

Citation

Rahman, M.S., AbdelFattah, F.A., Bag, S. and Gani, M.O. (2022), "Survival strategies of SMEs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: application of SEM and fsQCA", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 37 No. 10, pp. 1990-2009. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-12-2020-0564

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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