Martin Cepel

Faculty of Economics and Business,

Pan-European University in Bratislava,

Slovak Republic

martin.cepel@paneurouni.com

The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the perception of business risk in the SME segment

Beata Gavurova

Faculty of Management and Economics, 

Tomas Bata University in Zlín,

Czech Republic

gavurova@utb.cz

Jan Dvorsky

Faculty of Management and Economics, 

Tomas Bata University in Zlín,

Czech Republic

dvorsky@utb.cz

Jaroslav Belas

Faculty of Management and Economics, 

Tomas Bata University in Zlín,

Czech Republic

belas@utb.cz 

Abstract. The aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on entrepreneurs’ attitudes towards the selected business risks in the SME segment. 1502 SMEs took part in the research, while 822 of them provided their responses regarding business risks before the COVID-19 crisis and 680 during the COVID-19 crisis in Czech and Slovak business environment. Market, financial, and personnel risks were considered by Czech SMEs as the three most significant business risks, both before and after the COVID-19 crisis. The statistically confirmed differences in SMEs’ attitudes based on the time of providing responses are most apparent in the perception of financial and personnel risks. 35.7% SMEs in Czech Republic and 35.3% in Slovakia considered financial risk as one of the three most significant business risks before the COVID-19 crisis. During the crisis, it changed to 53.6% SMEs in Czech Republic and 59.7% in Slovakia. Before the crisis, up to 67.8% SMEs in Czech Republic and 62.8% in Slovakia considered personnel risk as one of the three most significant business risks. During the crisis, it was only 27.2% in Czech Republic and 29.4% in Slovakia.

Received: April, 2020

1st Revision: July, 2020

Accepted: September, 2020

DOI: 10.14254/2071-8330.2020/13-3/16

JEL Classification: D24, H32, D14

Keywords: business environment, small and medium-sized enterprises, COVID-19 crisis, business risk, crisis scenario