Innovation strategies aimed at the survival of smes in times of crisis: a systematic literature review
Keywords:
Innovation strategies, SMEs, Crisis.Abstract
Current crises such as the one unleashed by the COVID 19 pandemic affected companies in all sectors, but especially small and medium-sized ones. In these scenarios, organizations must propose innovation strategies aimed at survival, which on many occasions have involved changes in their business models. For this reason, a literature review was proposed aimed at identifying how SMEs managed to stay in the market thanks to innovation, as well as the effective aid received from public and private entities. The study had a qualitative, descriptive approach. Mainly books, reports, conference papers and research articles were consulted. A total of 54 documents were reviewed, mainly articles based on research results in the SCOPUS and Google Schoolar databases published in the period 2018 to 2022. Among the main findings are that SMEs focused mainly on the use of technology to facilitate the marketing of their products, the search for financing and the opening of new markets. In conclusion, although in most countries governments propose support measures, in very few cases SMEs can effectively access these funds. It is worth highlighting that the new challenges in the post-pandemic era require effective integration between the public and private sectors. The study allows us to determine how SMEs have faced recent crises such as COVID 19, the nature of which is different compared to other financial or political crises worldwide. Generally there is more data on large companies than on smaller companies.
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