Strategic responses of small businesses to COVID-19: evidence from an emergent country

Using the resource-based view of the firm, this study examines the strategic responses of small businesses, during the COVID-19 pandemic, in Colombia, and how those responses affected their probability of continuity. Results show that retrenchment strategies that affect long-term investments, and relationships, have a negative effect on business continuity, while perseverance activities that affect internal and direct stakeholders contribute to survival. We found a connection between innovating activities and small business continuity, but only with those related to proactiveness, or changes in operations. Our findings contribute to explain the effectiveness of specific retrenchment, perseverance and strategic renewal strategies during an environmental jolt, and how, by leveraging distinctive configurations of resources and capabilities, small businesses can survive, regardless of resource scarcity, supporting a contingent resource-based view of the firm.