Financial impact of COVID 19 pandemic on small and medium enterprises: a systematic review

Abstract

Covid- 19 pandemics have brought a broader view of challenges on various aspects such as health, medicine, transportation, tourism, education, business, economy, and many more. The the peculiarity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) across the globe is superciliously noted. This paper aims to carry out a systematic literature review regarding the financial impact of COVID 19 on SMEs to identify the research gaps and variables to forecast future research. Directions. We conducted a systematic review, and the critical aspects coded across seven thematic areas; the Supply Chain, Market orientation, Financial strategies, Entrepreneurial policy, Real-Time Data Management Technological readiness, and Entrepreneurial bricolage. After examining 28 papers from SCOPUS, Science Direct, and Taylor & Francis database, 12 articles were selected based on the requirement. The review reveals that financial impacts could be viewed in terms of the disrupted supply chain, reduced consumption and demand, cash flow risks, decline in stock market interrelated with critical liquidity level, capital market structure, bricolage, and many more. More in-depth research should examine how the extent to those variables are associated with the financial impacts of COVID 19. Research papers for review were limited to Science Direct, Taylor & Francis, Emerald, and SCOPUS only. This paper gives an insight into how COVID 19 influenced financially on SMEs and small and medium entrepreneurs. This paper contributes to knowledge, which is a new direction of research on entrepreneurship.