Experiences of Small Businesses Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

This chapter reports on how Swedish companies have coped with the first six months of the pandemic. The basis for analyses consists of interviews with 1200 small companies from four different industry segments, whose results show different outcomes. Some categories of companies experienced and are still experiencing significant negative effects, while other businesses have been only marginally affected. A small group has noticed growing sales as well as occasional signals from the market that new products and services are needed in the near future. There are indications that small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) managers are considering social responsibility towards the employees of the companies. We would like to emphasize three different activities. Firstly, over 40% of all SME managers have during the pandemic partly abstained from salary and/or other special salary benefits. In the hotel and restaurant sector, this figure is 70% and for managers with foreign background 55% state that they have done such activities. Second, many SMEs have used governmental support to be able to keep their employed individuals part-time in the companies. As a third example, it could be worth mentioning the many companies which are looking for alternative business ideas as an alternative, which could be seen as examples of effectuation.