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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that hinder the growth and survival of small businesses in Nigeria.

A survey method was used to gather data from 211 small business owners and managers located in selected cities in Nigeria. Several statistical analyses were conducted to identify the factors constraining the growth and survival of SMEs in Nigeria.

The results of the study reveal that the most common constraints hindering small business growth and survival in Nigeria are lack of financial support, poor management, corruption, lack of training and experience, poor infrastructure, insufficient profits, and low demand for product and services.

The instruments used for this study need to be subjected to more statistical tests in order to establish a more robust validity and reliability. Based on what we have learned, the instruments could be further refined to more closely capture each of the problem areas identified in the literature. Replication of this study using larger samples and a broader geographic base is suggested for cross‐validation purposes.

Understanding the factors hindering the growth and survival of SMEs in Nigeria will help policy makers – governments (federal, state, and local), NGOs, and other stakeholders – to design targeted policies and programs that will actively stimulate innovation, as well as helping those policy makers to support, encourage, and promote SMEs for poverty alleviation in Nigeria. For SMEs, this study offers alternative models to counteract the problem of collateral and lending issues. Strategic alternatives on how to address issues such as poor management, poor infrastructure, and corruption are discussed.

The significance of this study stems from the fact that very few studies have explored the issue of factors constraining the growth and survival of SMEs for poverty alleviation in Nigeria. The results provide additional insights into operations of SMEs in Nigeria, a sub‐Saharan African country. Sub‐Saharan Africa has been negated and, therefore, has been less researched. Also, the insights gained from this study to contribute the future development of this line of research, particularly in a non‐Western context.

Drawing on the resource-based view, this study aims to examine how family involvement in migrant-founded small businesses gives rise to distinctive resources that help these businesses survive.

Using microdata from the 2007 US survey of business owners (SBO), this study uses logit regression modeling to test the hypothesized relationships.

Results show that small businesses founded by migrant entrepreneurs are less likely to survive and that family involvement weakens the negative relationship between founder migrant status and business survivability. In addition, the positive moderating effect associated with family involvement is further strengthened by the use of external/borrowing startup capital, thus migrant families founded small businesses with access to external capital have the highest probability of survival.

This study contributes to the literature on both migrant entrepreneurship and family business. This paper finds family involvement in the business, interacting with the founder’s migrant status, tends to create distinctive resource endowments that help to compensate for the resource constraints associated with migrant entrepreneurs. Such resource endowments may take the form of high levels of solidarity among migrant family members and the spanning role of the migrant kinship networks extended from the country of origin to the country of residence.

The purpose of this paper is to test the interaction effect of government support in the relationship between business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, entrepreneurial education, and small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) survival in post-war communities in Northern Uganda.

Cross-sectional research design was used in the study and quantitative data were collected from 304 SMMEs located in Gulu District using a semi-structured questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) through the use of analysis of moment structures was adopted to establish the interaction effect of government support in the relationship between business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, entrepreneurial education, and SMMEs survival in post-war communities in Northern Uganda. Furthermore, Pearson’s correlation analysis was used to show the association between the variables under study.

The results revealed that there is a significant interaction effect of government support in the relationship between business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, entrepreneurial education, and SMMEs survival in post-war communities in Northern Uganda. Besides, the results indicated that business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, entrepreneurial education, and government support have significant and positive impacts on SMMEs survival in post-war communities in Northern Uganda.

The study employed cross-sectional research design, thus, ignoring longitudinal study approach. Besides, the sample was selected from only Gulu District, therefore, leaving out other Districts located in Northern Uganda.

Advocates of recovery programs and interventions in developing countries should consider government support as a vital factor in promoting business skill, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, and entrepreneurial education in order to enhance SMMEs growth in post-war communities. In addition, governments in developing countries should offer investment incentives and tax waivers to infant SMMEs in post-war communities like in Northern Uganda.

The study examined the interaction effect of government support in the relationship between business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, entrepreneurial education, and SMMEs survival in post-war communities in developing countries. Thus, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to test the interaction effect of government support in the relationship between business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, entrepreneurial education, and SMMEs survival in post-war communities in Northern Uganda. The use of government support as a moderator in the relationship between business skills, capital adequacy, access to finance, access to market, entrepreneurial education, and SMMEs survival is scarce in entrepreneurship literature and theory. This creates uniqueness in this study.

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are the live wire of construction industry in developing countries. These classes of establishments are most affected by economic contraction and turmoil, thus affecting their performance and survivability. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate and prioritize the survival determinants of construction consulting organization during economic contraction in Nigeria using quantity surveying firms as a focal point.

The study adopted the descriptive-survey design and quantitative data were collected through questionnaire purposely administered to quantity surveying firms in the Southwestern part of Nigeria. The data obtained from 99 quantity surveying firms on survival determinants were analysed using various statistical analysis such as mean score, standard deviation, Mann–Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis H test, and so on. Principal component analysis was used to identify the principal components of survival determinants, while the factors were prioritized using fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE).

The result of the analysis reveals eight factors that significantly determines the survival of firms during the period of economic contraction. Furthermore, the eight grouped factors were prioritized accordingly namely firm's innovation and diversification, ownership structure and networking, education level and management skills, and so on.

This study investigated the survival determinants of quantity surveying firms and prioritized it with the opinions of principal partners in quantity surveying establishments. As against obtaining large survey responses from all quantity surveyors in the study area that may not have practical experience of managing firms, the limited responses received provide valid basis to broaden the horizon of professionals and other stakeholders on the key determinants for firms to survive economic turmoil.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing information on prioritized factors that must be considered in an appropriate order by quantity surveying firms to survive economic contraction.

The global economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused the closure of countless ethnic minority businesses (EMBs) worldwide, partly due to the public policy responses. This paper investigates whether EMBs’ entrepreneurial orientation (EO) mediates the impact of public policy responses to COVID-19 on their survival.

Utilizing institutional theory, the authors developed a novel conceptual framework that divides policy responses to COVID-19 into aggressive (imposing restrictions on movement, e.g. lockdowns) and less aggressive policy responses (not imposing restrictions on movement, e.g. social distancing). The authors then surveyed intra-regional EMBs, specifically businesses owned by ethnic minorities in the Kano and Katsina provinces of Nigeria, and analysed the data using structural equation modelling and analysis of variance (ANOVA).

The authors found that intra-regional EMBs in developing countries are very vulnerable to the public policy responses imposed by governments to curb COVID-19. Aggressive policy responses have a more significant negative effect on the survival of intra-regional EMBs than their less aggressive counterparts. Furthermore, the authors found that EO as a crisis response strategy significantly supports intra-regional EMBs in managing their vulnerability to the hostile institutional environment, reduces the adverse effect of public policy responses and stimulates their survival during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper contributes to the institutional theory of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)/entrepreneurship and the literature on EMBs by showing the role of EO in mediating the effects of COVID-19 institutional policies on the survival of intra-regional EMBs.

This study examines the survival probability of the firms during the COVID-19 pandemic and identifies the effects of pandemic-era business strategies on firm survival across sectors and sizes.

This study combines World Bank Enterprise Survey data with three consecutive follow-up COVID-19 survey data. The COVID-19 surveys are the follow-up surveys of WBES, and they are done at different points of time during the pandemic. Both WBES and COVID-19 surveys follow the same sampling methods, and the data are merged based on the unique id number of the firms. The data covers 12,551 firms from 21 countries in different regions such as Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and the Middle East. The study applies Kaplan–Meier estimate to analyze the survival probability of the firms across sectors and sizes. The study then uses Cox non-parametric regression model to identify the effect of business strategies on the survival of the firms during the pandemic. The robustness of the Cox model is checked using the multilevel parametric regression model.

The study's findings suggest that a firm's survival probability decreases during the pandemic era. Manufacturing firms have a higher survival probability than service firms, whereas SMEs have a higher survival probability than large firms. During the pandemic period, business strategies significantly boost the probability of firm survival, and their impacts differ among firm sectors and sizes. Several firm-specific factors affect firm survival in different magnitudes and signs. Except in a few cases, the findings also indicate that one strategy positively moderates the influence of another strategy on firm survival during a pandemic.

COVID-19 pandemic has drastically affected the business across the globe. Firms adopted new business processes and strategies to face the challenges created by the pandemic. The critical research question is whether these pandemic-era business strategies ensure firms' survival. This study attempts to identify the effects of these business strategies on firms' survival, focusing on a comprehensive firm-level data set that includes firms from different sectors and sizes of countries from various regions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship among firm characteristics, innovation, financial resilience and survival of financial institutions in Uganda.

This paper employs a cross-sectional research design, and responses from 143 officers of 40 financial institutions are analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The authors used ordinary least squares regression in testing the hypotheses.

The authors find that firm characteristics of size, age, innovation and financial resilience have a predictive force on survival of public interest firms such as financial institutions.

The implication drawn here is that a combination of firm characteristics, firm innovation and financial resilience explains a significant contribution in the survival chances of financial institutions. However, as much as firm characteristics and financial resilience are significant, innovation explains more of the variances in financial institutions’ going concern appropriateness.

This paper adds to the limited financial institutions literature and provides the first empirical evidence of the efficacy of innovation and financial resilience on financial institutions survival. The auditing profession could consider more seriously the innovation activities and financial resilience of financial institutions in their test for the going concern assumption of such firms.

The purpose of this research is to present the results of a recent interpretive study of 11 small Central Vancouver Island firms in British Columbia, Canada, which yield new interpretations of the nature of problem‐solving processes within the wider context of managerial capability as a critical contributor to small business survival.

The methodological approach taken is positioned within an emergent body of research in the field of small business and entrepreneurship that applies an interpretive paradigm to uncover the complex facets of how individuals develop their capabilities and management practices with a particular emphasis on the small business owner‐manager. More specifically, the critical incident technique method, along with an approach to data analysis and coding that draws from grounded theory, is combined and applied as a qualitative research strategy to yield new understandings of problem solving in small firms.

Research findings reveal the intuitive, improvised and non‐linear nature of how problems are actually solved in the sample of small firms studied, in contrast with a number of well‐known theoretical research frameworks that propose well‐defined and delineated steps in the problem‐solving process.

The small sample size and the methods chosen to conduct the research do not allow for the generalization of findings to all firms, yet do allow for the emergence of themes among the businesses that participated in the study. Research could be expanded by applying a similar research design to small firms in other regions of Canada to determine whether significant differences or similarities exist and to identify the implications for research in the area of problem solving in small firms.

The identification of problems as critical incidents represents a primary focus of the research and provides a more explanatory account of problem solving from the perspective of small firm owner‐managers involved in the process. The analysis of these highly subjective interpretations represents valuable research findings that provide a basis for the development of theory on problem solving in small firms.

The world is going through a global crisis after the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) in most areas of the world. Businesses particularly small ones do not work in isolation but instead are embedded in an entrepreneurial ecosystem that is dependent on environmental conditions. The disruptive changes from COVID-19 have caused serious damage to the global economy, so it is up to entrepreneurs to bring equilibrium by introducing change. This paper adopts the lens of dynamic capabilities to study how small business entrepreneurs are trying to survive and grow in an entrepreneurial ecosystem affected by coronavirus.

Using qualitative research methods, 20 Pakistani entrepreneurs have been interviewed in order to assess how the entrepreneurial ecosystem in an emerging economy has been affected by COVID-19. This enables a contemporary and realistic understanding about the way small business entrepreneurs have adjusted to a crisis.

From the data analysis, the three main dimensions of dynamic capabilities for small business entrepreneurs emerge, which involve a sensing, seizing and transforming capability.

The findings suggest that small businesses utilise the following strategies to cope with change: emergent humanitarian crisis, carte blanche agile business models and effectual business functions. These findings contribute to the literature about the challenges of current crises and how businesses can cope in this situation using a dynamic capabilities perspective.

The findings contribute to the ability of small businesses to cope during the current pandemic situations and anticipate how to manage future crises. Furthermore, the entrepreneurial practices exercised by small businesses are also presented that represent an innovative way to understand crisis management techniques by entrepreneurs in emerging economies.

These findings contribute to the literature about the challenges of current crises and how businesses can cope in this situation using a dynamic capabilities perspective.

By drawing on the existing literature of COVID-19's impact on businesses, the theoretical contribution of this paper highlights the applicability of dynamic capabilities on small businesses to survive during the global crisis.

When a small business purchases a capital asset, its cost for tax purposes is spread over the useful life of the asset through the process of depreciation. It has become common in the USA for policy makers to enhance depreciation rules in an effort to increase business investment in a less-costly manner than across-the-board marginal tax rate cuts. Indeed, short-term depreciation policies are often billed by policy makers as a way to save America's small businesses. However, little is known about the actual effects of depreciation policies on small business activity. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this initial attempt to test the political claims regarding the importance of depreciation rules, the paper uses a 12-year panel of tax returns for Schedule C sole proprietors to empirically examine whether more generous depreciation policies influence small business activity at the extensive margin. Specifically, the paper estimates a series of multivariate models to explain sole proprietors’ decisions to remain in business as functions of their financial, demographic, and tax situations, including measures of the present discounted value (PDV) of a stream of tax deductions for depreciated capital under various rule structures.

Throughout the analysis, the authors are unable to find evidence that favorable depreciation rules lead to greater rates of entrepreneurial longevity among Schedule C sole proprietors.

Discrete choice results suggest that increases in the PDV of tax reductions from depreciation (e.g. depreciating the value earlier in the recovery period) might actually lead to higher probabilities of small business exit, while survival analysis finds no clear influence of depreciation on spells of small business activity.