The COVID-19 pandemic brought economies to a standstill. Despite mounting challenges in global markets, entrepreneurial activity saw a significant jump, notably in the United States (24% increase in 2020 and 23% in 2021) and India (24% in 2020 and 8% in 2021). Likewise in 2020, the Philippines, clocked in 837,000 new businesses registrations, a 50% increase compared to 556, 000 new registrations in 2019.
This phenomenon called for further inquiry. In A Qualitative Assessment of Small Business Formation and Entrepreneurship During the COVID-19 Pandemic, co-author Jamil Paolo s. Francisco, PhD, Associate Professor and Executive Director of the Rizalino S. Navarro (RSN) Center for Competitiveness at the Asian Institute of Management, together with Regina Yvette V. Romero and John Paul C. Flaminiano, examined the entrepreneurship process as experienced by the nascent entrepreneur and nascent enterprise during the pandemic.
Despite economic shocks, natural disasters, reduced access to credit and financial markets, supply chain disruptions, and increased uncertainty and pessimistic expectations, entrepreneurial activity in the Philippines thrived. Unemployment resulting from increasing business closures led to entrepreneurship as an option for an alternative source of income through self-employment due to new resource voids and market gaps providing opportunities for “disaster entrepreneurship”.
Using data gathered from interviews with owner-managers, Francisco et al adapted a process model conceptualized by Newman, Obschonka, and Block to examine how an unexpected crisis impacts entrepreneurial action and the formation of new businesses.
A Qualitative Assessment of Small Business Formation and Entrepreneurship During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Jamil Paolo S. Fransisco, PhD, Regina Yvette V. Romero, and John Paul C. Flaminiano is published by the International Journal of Small and Medium Enterprises and Business Sustainability (Volume 08, No.01 March 2023).
To read the article, go to: https://www.usakti-cisbucs.com/index.php/volume-08-number-01-march-2023/207-a-qualitative-assessment-of-small-business-formation-and-entrepreneurship-during-the-covid-19-pandemic
