Small Business Survival of Onslaughts of Boko Haram Insurgency, COVID-19 Pandemic, and Economic Crisis in Yola, North-East Nigeria

Abstract

Underpinning this chapter on vulnerability and resilience theoretical views, the authors examine the survival strategy of small businesses (SBs) facing triple crises. They adopted a descriptive survey research design as the most appropriate strategy while relying on the primary data collected through structured questionnaires. In the absence of a sample frame for the target population, a sample size of 400 managers of SBs was selected purposively based on objective eligibility criteria. Out of the sample, 257 managers of SBs returned their completed questionnaires. The findings support largely the resilient view and also affirmed the vulnerability view because the four entrepreneurial marketing (EM) dimensions, namely entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, innovation orientation, and customer orientation, have mixed impacts on the financial and non-financial performance of SBs facing triple crises. The study recommends that vulnerable SBs, when faced with economic crises, should be resilient and leverage the four EM dimensions for business continuity.