Safe Business in a Pandemic Risk Environment

Abstract

Purpose: Defining the concept of safe business by identifying the risks of SME business in a pandemic environment. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research was based on a deductive approach and was conducted in the first months of the pandemic in 2020 in the Lower Silesia. The research technique used GOOGLE electronic survey questionnaire and the collected data was statistically processed (SPSS). The study used sample, which allowed to select a set of population elements and determine the representativeness and reliability of the research sample. The thesis and hypothesis presented were verified based on the data collected in the quantitative study. The specificity of the distributions of the variables was established. Nonparametric tests were used to analyze the data. Correlations between variables were tested using Spearman's test. Findings: The conclusions of the study confirmed the mutual correlation between the "new" pandemic risk and the other "old" risk classes . This may indicate the impact of a rare "nuclear swan" phenomenon, the effects of which have not been and are not yet described in the literature. Practical Implications: The analysis of the results obtained in the study is partially consistent with the literature studies on the impact of the environment and the risks associated with it on micro and small enterprises conducted before the pandemic. Nevertheless, the assumptions made at the stage of selecting the research sample, allow to formulate a thesis about the broader universality of the confirmed regularities, which should be confirmed in extended research. Which is an important contribution to further discussion. Originality/value: The paper describes the diagnosed competence gap in the area of SME enterprise management in the current economic conditions of the pandemic. Which is an extremely complicated task due to the lack of precedents giving guidance to enterprises resulting from history and literature on the subject. In view of this, the identification of risk and definition of the concept of safe business in such unusual conditions, which are at the same time adequate to the dynamically changing environment under pandemic conditions, is a desirable goal to achieve in scientific and practical aspects.