[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/cuaepw/317045.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

SMEs Amidst the Pandemic and Reopening: Digital Edge and Transformation

Author

Listed:
  • Cong, Lin William
  • Yang, Xiaohan
  • Zhang, Xiaobo
Abstract
Using administrative universal firm registration data as well as primary offline and online surveys of small businesses in China, we examine (i) whether digitization helps Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) better cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, and (ii) whether the pandemic has spurred digital technology adoption. We document significant economic benefits of digitization in increasing SMEs’ resilience against such a large shock, as seen through mitigated demand decline, sustainable cash flow, ability to quickly reopen, and positive outlook for growth. Post the January 2020 lockdown, firm entries exhibited a V-shaped pattern, with entries of e-commerce firms experiencing a less pronounced initial drop and a quicker rebound. Moreover, the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation of existing firms and the aggregate industry in multiple dimensions (e.g., altering operation scope to include e-commerce, allowing remote work, and adopting electronic information systems). The effect persists one year after full reopening, offering suggestive evidence for the long-term impact of the pandemic and transitory mitigation policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Cong, Lin William & Yang, Xiaohan & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2021. "SMEs Amidst the Pandemic and Reopening: Digital Edge and Transformation," Applied Economics and Policy Working Paper Series 317045, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:cuaepw:317045
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.317045
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/317045/files/WP2022-01%20SMEs%20Amist%20the%20Pandemic.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.317045?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joan Crespo & Raphael Suire & Jerome Vicente, 2014. "Lock-in or lock-out? How structural properties of knowledge networks affect regional resilience," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 199-219, January.
    2. Davis, Steven J & Haltiwanger, John & Schuh, Scott, 1996. "Small Business and Job Creation: Dissecting the Myth and Reassessing the Facts," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 297-315, August.
    3. John Eric Humphries & Christopher Neilson & Gabriel Ulyssea, 2020. "The evolving impacts of COVID-19 on small businesses since the CARES Act," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2230, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    4. Raj Chetty & John N Friedman & Michael Stepner & Opportunity Insights Team & Camille Baker & Harvey Barnhard & Matt Bell & Gregory Bruich & Tina Chelidze & Lucas Chu & Westley Cineus & Sebi Devlin-Fol, 2024. "The Economic Impacts of COVID-19: Evidence from a New Public Database Built Using Private Sector Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(2), pages 829-889.
    5. Murillo Campello & Gaurav Kankanhalli & Pradeep Muthukrishnan, 2020. "Corporate Hiring under COVID-19: Labor Market Concentration, Downskilling, and Income Inequality," NBER Working Papers 27208, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Alexander W. Bartik & Marianne Bertrand & Zoë B. Cullen & Edward L. Glaeser & Michael Luca & Christopher T. Stanton, 2020. "How Are Small Businesses Adjusting to COVID-19? Early Evidence from a Survey," NBER Working Papers 26989, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Adams-Prassl, Abi & Boneva, Teodora & Golin, Marta & Rauh, Christopher, 2020. "Inequality in the impact of the coronavirus shock: Evidence from real time surveys," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    8. Allen, Franklin & Chakrabarti, Rajesh & De, Sankar & Qian, Jun “QJ” & Qian, Meijun, 2012. "Financing firms in India," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 409-445.
    9. Ströbel, Johannes & Alekseev, Georgij & Amer, Safaa & Gopal, Manasa & Kuchler, Theresa & Schneider, JW & Wernerfelt, Nils, 2020. "The Effects of COVID-19 on U.S. Small Businesses: Evidence from Owners, Managers, and Employees," CEPR Discussion Papers 15290, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Dai, Ruochen & Mookherjee, Dilip & Quan, Yingyue & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2021. "Industrial clusters, networks and resilience to the Covid-19 shock in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 433-455.
    11. Adams-Prassl, A. & Boneva, T. & Golin, M & Rauh, C., 2020. "Inequality in the Impact of the Coronavirus Shock: New Survey Evidence for the US," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2022, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    12. Fairlie, Robert W, 2020. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Business Owners: Continued Losses and the Partial Rebound in May 2020," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt21f993s2, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    13. Jon Frost, 2020. "The economic forces driving FinTech adoption across countries," Working Papers 663, DNB.
    14. Rachel E. Kranton & Deborah F. Minehart, 2000. "Networks versus Vertical Integration," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(3), pages 570-601, Autumn.
    15. Olivia S. Kim & Jonathan A. Parker & Antoinette Schoar, 2020. "Revenue Collapses and the Consumption of Small Business Owners in the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic," NBER Working Papers 28151, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Robert P. Bartlett III & Adair Morse, 2020. "Small Business Survival Capabilities and Policy Effectiveness: Evidence from Oakland," NBER Working Papers 27629, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Stijn Claessens & Jon Frost & Grant Turner & Feng Zhu, 2018. "Fintech credit markets around the world: size, drivers and policy issues," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    18. Dai, Ruochen & Feng, Hao & Hu, Junpeng & Jin, Quan & Li, Huiwen & Wang, Ranran & Wang, Ruixin & Xu, Lihe & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2021. "The impact of COVID-19 on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): Evidence from two-wave phone surveys in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fu, Jonathan & Mishra, Mrinal, 2022. "Fintech in the time of COVID−19: Technological adoption during crises," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Humphries, John Eric & Neilson, Christopher A. & Ulyssea, Gabriel, 2020. "Information frictions and access to the Paycheck Protection Program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    2. Jun Sung Kim & Taehoon Kim, 2022. "Geographic spread of COVID‐19 and local economies: Heterogeneous effects by establishment size and industry," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 696-731, June.
    3. Olivia S. Kim & Jonathan A. Parker & Antoinette Schoar, 2020. "Revenue Collapses and the Consumption of Small Business Owners in the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic," NBER Working Papers 28151, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Hensvik, Lena & Le Barbanchon, Thomas & Rathelot, Roland, 2021. "Job search during the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    5. Chen, Joy & Cheng, Zijun & Gong, Robin Kaiji & Li, Jinlin, 2022. "Riding out the COVID-19 storm: How government policies affect SMEs in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    6. Michael D. Noel, 2022. "Competitive survival in a devastated industry: Evidence from hotels during COVID‐19," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 3-24, February.
    7. Robert P. Bartlett III & Adair Morse, 2020. "Small Business Survival Capabilities and Policy Effectiveness: Evidence from Oakland," NBER Working Papers 27629, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Mark Partridge & Seung‐hun Chung & Sydney Schreiner Wertz, 2022. "Lessons from the 2020 Covid recession for understanding regional resilience," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 1006-1031, September.
    9. Adermon, Adrian & Laun, Lisa & Lind, Patrik & Olsson, Martin & Sauermann, Jan & Sjögren , Anna, 2022. "Earnings losses and the role of the welfare state during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from Sweden," Working Paper Series 2022:20, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    10. Nicholas Bloom & Philip Bunn & Paul Mizen & Pawel Smietanka & Gregory Thwaites, 2020. "The Impact of Covid-19 on Productivity," NBER Working Papers 28233, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Blanas, Sotiris & Oikonomou, Rigas, 2023. "COVID-induced economic uncertainty, tasks and occupational demand," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    12. Wu, Jianxin & Zhan, Xiaoling & Xu, Hui & Ma, Chunbo, 2023. "The economic impacts of COVID-19 and city lockdown: Early evidence from China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 151-165.
    13. Leonardo Fabio Morales & Leonardo Bonilla‐Mejía & Jose Pulido & Luz A. Flórez & Didier Hermida & Karen L. Pulido‐Mahecha & Francisco Lasso‐Valderrama, 2022. "Effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the Colombian labour market: Disentangling the effect of sector‐specific mobility restrictions," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(S1), pages 308-357, February.
    14. Guido Neidhöfer & Nora Lustig & Mariano Tommasi, 2021. "Intergenerational transmission of lockdown consequences: prognosis of the longer-run persistence of COVID-19 in Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(3), pages 571-598, September.
    15. Betcherman,Gordon & Giannakopoulos,Nicholas & Laliotis,Ioannis & Pantelaiou,Ioanna & Testaverde,Mauro & Tzimas,Giannis, 2020. "Reacting Quickly and Protecting Jobs : The Short-Term Impacts of the COVID-19 Lockdown on the Greek Labor Market," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9356, The World Bank.
    16. Liu, Yu & Wei, Siqi & Xu, Jian, 2021. "COVID-19 and Women-Led Businesses around the World," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    17. Seung Jin Cho & Jun Yeong Lee & John V. Winters, 2021. "Employment impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic across metropolitan status and size," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 1958-1996, December.
    18. Thomas F Crossley & Paul Fisher & Hamish Low & Peter Levell, 2023. "A year of COVID: the evolution of labour market and financial inequalities through the crisis," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(3), pages 589-612.
    19. Forsythe, Eliza & Kahn, Lisa B. & Lange, Fabian & Wiczer, David, 2020. "Labor demand in the time of COVID-19: Evidence from vacancy postings and UI claims," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    20. Stephan Dietrich & Valerio Giuffrida & Bruno Martorano & Georg Schmerzeck, 2022. "COVID‐19 policy responses, mobility, and food prices," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(2), pages 569-588, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health Economics and Policy;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:cuaepw:317045. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dacorus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.