Advancing Small Business Strategy in Turbulent Times: Capabilities, Ethical AI, Customer Retention, Brand Trust, Workplace Culture, and Trade Policy Uncertainty

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are central to innovation, employment, and community development, yet they face intensifying pressures from technological change, shifting customer expectations, cultural strains, and volatile policy environments. This special issue of the Journal of Small Business Strategy emerged from the inaugural Advances in Business Management Conference held in 2025 and brings together diverse theoretical and empirical perspectives on how small firms build resilience and sustain competitive advantage. The contributing articles examine five interrelated domains: capabilities and resilience, AI and digital transformation, customer retention and brand archetypes, workplace “families” and toxic positivity, and the impacts of tariffs and trade policy uncertainty on SME supply chains. Across these themes, the collection highlights that small-business success depends on the alignment of distinct but complementary capabilities, ethically governed technological systems, relational and symbolic foundations of customer relationships, psychologically healthy cultures, and a stable yet dynamic policy environment. Together, the articles advance small business strategy research and offer actionable insights for owners, educators, and policymakers seeking to support SMEs in an era of rapid technological, economic, social, and regulatory change.