The sudden attack of COVID-19 has affected human lives and economies to a great extent. The lockdown and restrictions taken as measures by the government to stop the spread of the coronavirus are responsible to shut down many small businesses permanently. In this paper, we will get an idea of how the pandemic has affected small businesses. The world witnessed the largest fall in the number of active businesses. The supply chain got affected due to this and as a result, this affected global trade. Research shows that the impact of the pandemic on the small business and employees have changed the overall business policies facing economic imbalance.

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Covid Impact on Small Business

We assess the role of race in loans made through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The PPP program, created by the U.S. government as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, provides loans to small businesses so they can keep employees on their payroll. We argue that the historical record and PPP program design choices made it likely that many Black-owned businesses received smaller PPP loans than White-owned businesses. Using newly released data on the PPP program, we find that Black-owned businesses received loans that were approximately 50 percent lower than observationally similar White-owned businesses. The effect is marginally smaller in areas with more bank competition and disappeared over time as changes to the PPP program were implemented allowing for entry by fintechs and other non-traditional lenders.

Discrimination in Lending? Evidence from the Paycheck Protection Program

The COVID-19 pandemic has generally destroyed the global tourism industry and threatened the recovery of destinations in developing countries facing more challenges from increasingly serious waves of the pandemic. Although many studies have attempted to measure the general impacts of COVID-19, very little research has been conducted to assess its overall impact on specific tourism destinations throughout many waves of the pandemic. This research aims to explore how a tourism economy in a developing country context has been damaged after many waves of COVID-19. A typical emerging city in Vietnam experiencing three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic was selected as a case study. The study recruited 40 representatives of tourism-related organizations for in-depth interviews, while 280 questionnaires were distributed to participants from different tourism organizations. The findings indicate that the majority of tourism businesses in the examined case study seriously suffered from the pandemic, and very few tourism-related enterprises were able to recover after the first wave of infection. Unfortunately, the tourism business sectors were found to be on the brink of bankruptcy or facing permanent shutdown after the third wave. All tourism enterprises generally appeared to experience a sharp drop in the number of customers, tourism revenue, service facilities and exploitation, as well as employee downsizing, but the degree of downturn differed among the examined enterprises. Among the tourism enterprises, travel agencies and the accommodation sector were found to suffer the greatest economic losses compared to other stakeholders. In general, the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the tourism business in Vietnam is a big concern, which may require a timely economic policy response and financial scheme to better support local enterprises in coping with the challenges during post-pandemic recovery.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impacts on Tourism Business in a Developing City: Insight from Vietnam

This research aims to determine the role of the leadership and potential benefits that blockchain adoption may bring to SME financing in the Kingdom, as well as the foreseeable challenges that may hinder small businesses from benefiting from the adoption of blockchain. It is interesting aspect to see how leadership manages to adopt new changes amid several challenges and threats. This article also outlines policy and regulatory trends that SMEs can save operating costs and improve efficiency, thereby increasing transparency and easier access to funds. Digital technology and creative business models have the potential to help narrow the financing gap for SMEs. E-commerce and the sharing economy provide SMEs with more market access and new business models, as well as the data-driven business prospects generated through data sharing under the framework of open banking. This study provides recommendation that there is a dire need to pay attention on the complete mechanism of the SME’s in order to support them as well as promote them to show their distinction in the contribution of social and economic development. This study provides implications for the financial institutions, government agencies and society to come forward equally for the common interest.

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Role of Leadership in Adoption of Blockchain Technology in Small and Medium Enterprises in Saudi Arabia

Digitalization has the potential to hasten the economic transition towards a more resource-efficient as well as robust circular production system. However, there is a paucity of empirical research on the influence that digitalization has on the ability of a circular economy to function effectively. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect that digitalization has on the performance of the circular economy. The research was based on an empirical analysis of quantitative data obtained from a sample size of 200 investors and entrepreneurs in the financial sector of Kozani, Greece. Regression results showed that there is a positive relationship between digital practices and performance of a circular economy, and that digital business innovations have a positive effect on performance of a circular economy. Even while a sizeable proportion of Greek companies apply new business innovations to support the strategy of resource efficiency, it is abundantly obvious that this percentage is far higher among industrial organizations that place a heavy focus on digitalization. According to the findings of the research, there is a favorable correlation between the adoption of digital business practices and innovations and the success of circular economies. This demonstrates very clearly that digitalization has the potential to function as a driving force behind the development of circular business models.

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The Impact of Digitalization in Supporting the Performance of Circular Economy: A Case Study of Greece

The link between climate change and growing poverty levels makes communities more vulnerable to catastrophes, reducing community resilience to disaster consequences. Development practitioners, planners, and researchers must find novel techniques to build community resilience in the face of an ever-growing hazard in such a circumstance with a spectrum of risk and catastrophe. As a result, the focus of this study was on how school systems, as significant social institutions, might effectively minimize disaster risk in communities. People’s standards, beliefs, and behaviors are greatly influenced by societal institutions. After the family, the school is the second most significant socializing institution, in charge of shaping people’s attitudes, knowledge, behaviors, specialized skills, and values in order to ensure social conformity. The prospect of using school systems to increase catastrophe risk reduction in poor areas of Greece was specifically addressed in this study. The study confirmed that the school curriculum has a positive and significant relationship with disaster risk management. Many advantages are realized, according to the research, if catastrophe risk mitigation is made a priority in Greece’s educational systems. Learning about ideas such as civil protection and incorporating disaster risk management into school curricula are both viewed as vital in enhancing disaster risk management.

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Using School Systems as a Hub for Risk and Disaster Management: A Case Study of Greece

Civil protection has attracted considerable attention due to its role in disaster management and preparedness, being essential in alerting the public about potential disasters and crisis recovery measures. However, there is limited research on civil protection and its vital role in urban economy recovery. Therefore, we sought to comprehensively investigate the impact of civil protection on economic growth and the development of the urban economy, focusing on a small-sized Greek city, Kozani, as a case study. We utilized data from 160 residents of Kozani. The study findings confirmed that the key focus areas of civil protection, namely, the national early warning system, crisis preparedness measures and economy rescue operations, significantly affect economic growth and development. Furthermore, the key strategies essential for improved civil protection, such as government support, positively affect economic growth.

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Contribution of Civil Protection to the Urban Economy: Evidence from a Small-Sized Greek City

This paper examines the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which, according to the World Health Organization, has affected every country and has caused millions of deaths as well as huge financial losses. This paper, then, explores recent statistics documenting the disruption of the world economy. Of course, the blow at the level of business, market, employment, income, industries, companies, and so on is an issue that should be constantly investigated. The ongoing impact study proposal is based on the fact that each developing country has taken measures and enacted policies to reduce the direct impact of COVID-19. However, as research shows, each country has different records and sizes of impacts to their economies, and any government effort to reduce these effects should take into account national losses and impacts so the recovery measures are proportionate. Government measures should be adapted to the operational needs and difficulties of the country to effectively ensure resilience, security, reduction of economic losses and sustainable industrialization.

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Stavros Kalogiannidis

Papers

Covid Impact on Small Business

The Impact of Digitalization in Supporting the Performance of Circular Economy: A Case Study of Greece

Using School Systems as a Hub for Risk and Disaster Management: A Case Study of Greece

Contribution of Civil Protection to the Urban Economy: Evidence from a Small-Sized Greek City

Αn Eclectic Discussion of the Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on the World Economy During the First Stage of the Spread