Special Issue "In Times of Crisis: Sustainable Innovation and Performance Management in the SMEs"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Mário José Baptista Franco
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Management and Economics, CEFAGE-UBI Research Center, University of Beira Interior, 6200-209 Covilhã, Portugal
Interests: entrepreneurship; innovation; SMEs; strategic alliances; interorganizational networks; cooperation; partnerships
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Margarida Maria Mendes Rodrigues
E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
CEFAGE-UBI Research Center, University of Beira Interior, 6200-209 Covilhã, Portugal
Interests: creative, smart, and sustainable cities; regional and urban networks; corporate social responsibility; mining industry; sustainable urban entrepreneurship; living labs; entrepreneurship in general; accounting; management control; auditing
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In times of crisis and fundamentally due to COVID-19, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been affected by this economic and social pandemic. It is therefore crucial that scientific research continues to increasingly serve as a conduit for solutions to overcome the negative effects of this pandemic crisis and similar crises in the future. This Special Issue will comprise a selection of papers addressing topics, approaches, and tools to understand how, in times of crisis, the performance management in SMEs, including family business, can be affected. Therefore, research papers should address the multifaceted topics around sustainable innovation and performance management, such as (1) entrepreneurship, (2) performance, (3) green innovation, (4) regional competitiveness, (5) partnerships, and (6) business resilience, among others. These topics should include definitions of the concepts of entrepreneurship, sustainable innovation, and performance management as well as the identification of factors affecting these types of phenomena. In addition, these surveys should identify situations in which managers/owners of SMEs have adapted their businesses to respond to the disruption caused by COVID-19 and explain how they made this rapid change operational as well as the impact it had on their performance; explain whether social responsibility has become more important in the way of business management; determine whether digitization was important in addressing the crisis and to what extent, among others. Measurement tools for assessing these topics are also requested as well as theoretical frameworks to face similar crises. Perspectives guiding the design of sustainable innovation, resilience, and performance management in the context of SMEs should be presented to consider when implementing public policies for increasing competitiveness, including those aimed at approved special economic support to mitigate the severe effects of this virus.

Papers should also use various support theories to explain sustainable innovation and SME  performance management in times of crisis, such as chaos theory, sustainability theory, resource-based theory, network theory, circular economy, absorption capacity theory, and fuzzy set theory, among others. Thus, in general, this Special Issue will be devoted to the study of the benefits of sustainable innovation practices, social responsibility, digitalization, resilient management, and adequate performance indicators in times of crisis for the SMEs of various countries and regions worldwide.

Empirical, conceptual, exploratory articles are welcome that use quantitative and qualitative methodology per se, or a combination.

Papers selected for this Special Issue will be subject to a rigorous peer review procedure with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications.

Prof. Dr. Mário José Baptista Franco
Dr. Margarida Maria Mendes Rodrigues
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • sustainable innovation
  • digital entrepreneurship
  • entrepreneurial resilience
  • SME performance
  • crisis management
  • government support
  • organizational response
  • impact of business
  • skills
  • social responsibility
  • social entrepreneurship
  • family firms
  • employment and unemployment
  • risk management
  • creative entrepreneurship

Published Papers (4 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

Article
Teaching and Researching in the Context of COVID-19: An Empirical Study in Higher Education
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 8718; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168718 - 04 Aug 2021
Viewed by 238
Abstract
There is increasing recognition worldwide of the importance of academic activities, specifically in situations of pandemics. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the effects of COVID-19 on lecturers/researchers and Ph.D. and master students who have faced unexpected and continuous disruption in their teaching [...] Read more.
There is increasing recognition worldwide of the importance of academic activities, specifically in situations of pandemics. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the effects of COVID-19 on lecturers/researchers and Ph.D. and master students who have faced unexpected and continuous disruption in their teaching and research activities. To fulfil the aims, the study focused on a mixed method approach quantitative study based on a questionnaire administered on social networks and open questions. The unit of analysis was lecturers/researchers and Ph.D. and master students. The results obtained show that this lengthy interruption had severe impacts on their activities, requiring new competencies and capacities to deal with changes in a short period of time, including less positive feelings affecting them and their families. The main contribution of this study lies in identifying the barriers and opportunities created by this virus in the academic world and in presenting a theoretical framework to improve the situation, given that the confinement exponentiated negative and psychological feelings in academics, although telework is seen as a positive factor with continuity in the future, as a way to foster the social, environmental sustainability of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the wellbeing of their human capital. As implications for practice, the evidence points to the need for academics to be provided with training in E-learning, about technological tools for use in distance-learning and to reconsider how they carry out their research on the ground. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Article
COVID 19 and the Business Management Crisis: An Empirical Study in SMEs
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 5912; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115912 - 24 May 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 974
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many firms to close, causing an unprecedented interruption in trade in most sectors of economic activity worldwide. Although global supply chains have been affected by the general lockdown, due to their particular characteristics, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many firms to close, causing an unprecedented interruption in trade in most sectors of economic activity worldwide. Although global supply chains have been affected by the general lockdown, due to their particular characteristics, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been hit most severely by the measures implemented to prevent the spread of the virus. This study aims to determine how these firms coped with the disruption caused by the closure, in terms of population and their daily lives to carry out their economic activities. For this purpose, a qualitative methodology (descriptive and inductive) was used through the use of snowball sampling with a questionnaire in Portugal during the lockdown. The results obtained show that SMEs face a series of difficulties from interrupting their operations, which has caused serious liquidity problems, with effects on their future continuity and maintaining jobs. Additionally, it showed the importance of government measures to support these firms today and in the future, although the number of firms adhering to them is considerably affected by the eligibility criteria and the speed of institutions’ response. The main contribution of this research lies in confirming that the weaknesses in SMEs are the principal obstacle to a resilient response to this crisis, such as their limited liquidity, human resources, digitalization, and use of information technology. These weaknesses and/or threats had already been indicated in the various theoretical currents stemming from Organizational Theory, so the originality of this contribution lies in the fact that the managers of these SMEs are endowed with other skills and characteristics, such as, for example, dynamic capacities to manage business in an unparalleled crisis and to continue their operations, even when faced with a global blockage. Implications for theory and practice, limitations, and suggestions for future research are also presented. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Article
Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Stock and Commodity Markets Performance and Sustainability: A Comparative Analysis of South Asian Countries
Sustainability 2021, 13(10), 5669; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105669 - 18 May 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 749
Abstract
COVID-19 is certainly the first sustainability crisis of the 21st century. The paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian stock and commodity markets during the different phases of lockdown. In addition, the effect of COVID-19 on the Indian stock and commodity [...] Read more.
COVID-19 is certainly the first sustainability crisis of the 21st century. The paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian stock and commodity markets during the different phases of lockdown. In addition, the effect of COVID-19 on the Indian stock and commodity markets during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 spread was compared. A comparative analysis of the stock market performances and sustainability of selected South Asian countries is also included in the study, which covers the lockdown period as well as the time frame of the first and second waves of COVID-19 spread. To examine the above relationship, the conventional Welch test, heteroskedastic independent t-test, and the GMM multivariate analysis is employed, on the stock return, gold prices, and oil prices. The findings conclude that during the different phases of lockdown in India, COVID-19 has a negative and significant impact on oil prices and stock market performance. However, in terms of gold prices, the effect is positive and significant. The results of the first wave of COVID-19 infection also corroborate with the above findings. However, the results are contradictory during the second wave of coronavirus infection. Furthermore, the study also substantiates that COVID-19 has significantly affected the stock market performances of selected South Asian countries. However, the impact on the stock market performances was only for a short period and it diminished in the second wave of COVID-19 spread in all the selected South Asian countries. The findings contribute to the research on the stock and commodity market impact of a pandemic by providing empirical evidence that COVID-19 has spill-over effects on stock markets and commodity market performances. This result also helps investors in assessing the trends of the stock and commodity markets during the pandemic outbreak. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

Review
From Challenges to Creativity: Enhancing SMEs’ Resilience in the Context of COVID-19
Sustainability 2021, 13(12), 6542; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126542 - 08 Jun 2021
Viewed by 974
Abstract
COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant and multiple challenges for SMEs. While SMEs have traditionally faced financial and non-financial crises, the pandemic has brought about additional uncertainties on how to maintain business continuity. The purpose of this paper is to examine how SMEs can [...] Read more.
COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant and multiple challenges for SMEs. While SMEs have traditionally faced financial and non-financial crises, the pandemic has brought about additional uncertainties on how to maintain business continuity. The purpose of this paper is to examine how SMEs can mitigate against COVID-19-related crisis by examining the impacts that the pandemic has had on them through a review of 34 articles. The thematic analysis from the literature covered three overarching and inter-related challenges including (i) cost and finance-related challenges, (ii) disruption of activities, and (iii) existential difficulties. The paper’s value lies in addressing the gap between the espoused literature’s claim of the beneficial impact of new technological advancements and SMEs’ ability to survive in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The additional value of this paper is a framework of recommendations to help enhance SMEs’ resilience and responsiveness in the context of COVID-19. These recommendations include collaboration, openness, taking advantage of opportunities/victory, and durability. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop