Micro e pequenos negócios em tempos de COVID: um estudo das estratégias de sobrevivência em tempos de pandemia

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has come as a surprise to everyone, and this is nothing new. At no time in our history has an event of this magnitude been witnessed within the circumstances of globalization and economic development that we find ourselves in, which impacted the whole society and brought several challenges to the world production chain. In Brazil, even without great support from the State, enterprises were forced to stop their activities and measures to restrict and contain the disease were imposed, which made it difficult to commercialize products and services, causing many businesses to close permanently and forcing entrepreneurs reinvent themselves to survive, especially those who own micro and small businesses. The false sense of freedom and autonomy passed on by entrepreneurship masks the lack of support that these small businesses receive from the State, in addition to becoming hostages to the market, since the society in which we are inserted is characterized by its capitalist nature. Thus, strategic formulation at a delicate moment like this is essential when it comes to differentiation to generate competitive advantage and survive. In this way, the present study discusses the effects of the new Coronavirus pandemic on enterprises, resulting from changes in the behavior of the market and society, focusing on the competitive strategies adopted by micro and small companies to stand out from the crisis. Therefore, an empirical study was carried out with entrepreneurs who own MSB's, using interviews, so that the challenges faced by them, and the solutions found to remain in the market could be better understood.