Due to the increase in unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Metropolitan Lima (Peru), unemployment in 2020 rose to 16.5% (1.3 million unemployed) compared to the previous year. Through innovation, SMEs sought new strategies to continue growing in the highly competitive market, generating labour demand. Therefore, the research question proposed was: How has business innovation favoured the reduction of unemployment in SMEs during the pandemic caused by COVID-19 in Metropolitan Lima? In order to solve this problem, this research developed a qualitative approach using grounded theory. Data was collected by interviewing 17 key subjects, in addition to the observation of 12 businesses between the months of August and October 2021. The results show that the observed businesses that were able to successfully cope with the pandemic had to modify their structure or processes with new sales methods (home delivery), as well as novel promotion and advertising techniques.
Received: 25 October 2022 / Accepted: 29 January 2023 / Published: 5 March 2023
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.