Authors:
Dr Monomita Nandy: Reader in Accounting and Finance; Director of Internationalisation & Exchange coordinator -Brunel Business School, Brunel University London, UK. I conduct research with local and international business on emerging issues in finance and accounting. I apply interdisciplinary approach in sustainable development models.
Dr Audrey Tang: A chartered psychologist and author. Listen to her podcast Retrain Your Brain here; watch her psychology & coaching masterclasses on YouTube Or catch her hosting Psych Back to Basics on DisruptiveTV where she and her team discuss how psychology affects our behaviours in the workplace and what we can do about it. Follow her
Dr Suman Lodh: Senior lecturer in Finance and Research Lead at the Middlesex University Business School. I work in the area of Corporate Finance, Banking and SME finance at the local and international level. My expertise includes machine learning and big data analysis using statistical software such as Stata, R and Python which complement my research in the above-mentioned fields.
Viewpoint:
The economic growth of any country is heavily dependent on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) ( Burgstaller and Wagner, 2015). As the internal organisation is very simple for SMEs, there is a high opportunity for them to adopt a change (Lavia Lopez and Hiebl, 2015). However, the rapid expansion of the Coronavirus crisis across various sectors in the economy, makes the SME’s existing challenges more prominent than before. From research, we know that SMEs are highly vulnerable to external events compared to big companies (Altman et al., 2010) and thus, the survival of SMEs is highly threatened during Covid-19. As in the private sector, more than two thirds of all jobs are generated by SMEs (Gama and Geraldes, 2012), it is the responsibility of the government and researchers to work hard with them to identify which model the SMEs should follow in the post Covid-19 period to keep contributing to the rapid development of the economy.
When we contacted the SMEs in our network to better understand their concerns, we found that most of them are trying to find opportunities during this crisis, as they believe that by modifying their business approach they will be able to explore opportunities to survive. We find some common questions that each SME leader asked themselves during the crisis. The questions are- How to get the teams to be passionate beyond their job description? How the team members can learn through their experience in order to grow themselves, not necessarily for the “reward” or promotion or a positive appraisal? How to encourage innovation – especially at a time of crisis such as the 2020 Pandemic when with a lack of precedent, all ideas stand equal…?
When we started looking for an efficacious model to assist the SME, we found the following “crime triangle” (Eck,2010)as an effective starting point to answer most of the questions raised by the SME leaders. Like the “fire triangle” (Oxygen, Heat, Fuel) – the Crime triangle suggests that the instigation of a (criminal) event requires all three elements. The “crime triangle” states that for most crimes to occur all three elements need to be fulfilled. If we remove one element then the crime can be prevented. Thus, it indicates that if we add whichever element is missing rather than simply pushing what is already there, the crime will happen:
However, Tang (2020) examined this model in the light of a virtuous rather than vicious triangle, using “Initiative” as the outcome rather than crime. This model states that there is a necessity of desire, ability and opportunity for SME to survive and perform well in any situation.