Guest editorial: The effect of COVID-19 on the performance of ethnic-minority firms in the UK and worldwide

PurposeThis paper outlines ways in which struggling ethnic minority entrepreneurial service ventures and their owners might respond to unforeseen economic and social shocks. Interviews with owners of Bangladeshi Curry Houses in the United Kingdom — whom historically have lower performance rates compared to other ethnic minority businesses in the country — reveal that the entrepreneurs' response strategies undertaken to survive and remain in the business despite the challenges faced from operating in a turbulence environment.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted depth phone interviews with owners of Bangladeshi Curry Houses in London during January and February of 2021. The Gioia methodology was applied to the interview scripts to identify which crisis themes exist.FindingsDespite no advanced educational training, Bangladeshi owners have applied all of the different crisis management techniques present in larger companies: retrenchment, persevering, innovation, and exit. Although the results show that government schemes aimed at helping small businesses have contributed significantly to their survival, concerns regarding the post-health crisis situation remain challenging and threatening for their growth and survivability.Originality/valueThe results indicates that the ethnic minority owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are less likely to plan for the future operations; furthermore, they tend not to have formulated a strategy for dealing with an external shock hence affecting and threatening their performance and competitiveness in the marketplace.

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Firm resilience, stressors, and entrepreneurial well-being: insights from women entrepreneurs in Ghana

Essuman,

Boso,

Addo Asamany

et al. 2024

IJEBR

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PurposeThis study draws on the conservation of resources logic to theorize the role of firm resilience in explaining variations in entrepreneurial well-being under varying conditions of supply chain disruption and dependency ratio.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses ex-post survey data from 373 women entrepreneurs in diverse agricultural supply chains in Ghana, a sub-Saharan African country. Moderated regression analysis is employed to test the research hypotheses.FindingsThe results indicate that firm resilience has both positive and negative relationships with economic and subjective well-being, depending on the level of supply chain disruption and dependency ratio women entrepreneurs face. Notably, the findings suggest that firm resilience contributes more to economic and subjective well-being of women entrepreneurs when dependency ratio is low and supply chain disruption is high.Originality/valueThe study integrates firm resilience research and entrepreneurial well-being literature to provide new insights into theorizing and analyzing the benefit of firm resilience for women entrepreneurs’ well-being.

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Guest editorial: The effect of COVID-19 on the performance of ethnic-minority firms in the UK and worldwide

Cited by 3 publications

References 29 publications

SME Access to Bank Finance During the COVID-19 Pandemic

SME Access to Bank Finance During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The impact of Covid-19 on struggling ethnic minority entrepreneurs' business strategy: the case of Bangladeshi curry houses in the United Kingdom

Firm resilience, stressors, and entrepreneurial well-being: insights from women entrepreneurs in Ghana

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