Financial Sustainability among SMEs after the Endemic Phase: A Systematic Literature Review

Regardless of the nature, activity scope and size of a company, its aim in general is the maintenance of a stable financial situation and this is associated with financial sustainability. SMEs is the scope of this study due to its importance on the global scale. The purpose and aim of this study is to examine financial sustainability of SMEs from the endemic phase onwards, which is from the second half of 2021 onwards. Based on the guidelines from literature, this Systematic Literature Review study performs the following steps: (a) Identification and clarification of primary concepts in the literature (b) Description of the research questions (c) Identification of main factors associated with the research questions (d) Identification of literature which is relevant (e) Identification of data which is relevant for answering the research questions (f) Specification of the study's results The reviewed articles' findings explain how to improve financial sustainability in the context of SMEs. These articles proved that the avenues to improve financial sustainability include having an optimum level of crisis preparedness, diversifying sources, implementing cost-saving measures, enhancing Eco-dynamic capabilities, planning and executing supply chain management practices, building social capital and capitalising on cloud computing services. As per the findings shown above, it can be seen that the literature on the subject is still new, which is the purpose of this study. The findings also mention how to achieve the much-needed financial sustainability among SMEs especially during the endemic period. JEL Codes: Keywords: Financial Sustainability; Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs); Systematic Literature Review, Endemic phase, PRISMA.