IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jecomi/v12y2024i7p184-d1433562.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Survival Analysis of Small Business during COVID-19 Pandemic, a Brazilian Case Study

Author

Listed:
  • Jorge Luis Tonetto

    (Business School, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 90610-970, Brazil)

  • Josep Miquel Pique

    (La Salle Campus Barcelona, Ramon Llull University, 08022 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Adelar Fochezatto

    (Business School, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 90610-970, Brazil)

  • Carina Rapetti

    (La Salle Campus Barcelona, Ramon Llull University, 08022 Barcelona, Spain)

Abstract

The impact of COVID-19 on the economy was devastating. Small businesses typically have few resources to fight against such adversity. Many businesses remained closed for some time during the pandemic period, resulting in significant consequences for people in terms of jobs, income and life. The objective of this research is to identify the factors that contributed to increasing company failures during the pandemic. Furthermore, this study aims to verify whether the size of the companies, the sectors of economic activity in which they operate and their geographic location influence enterprise failure. This article analyzes the survival of 8931 small businesses from 2017 to 2023, in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The study applied a survival analysis using the Kaplan–Meier procedure, complemented with the Cox procedure, to determine the effects of the size of companies, sector activity and location on the survival time. The results indicate that survival is much higher in small companies with large revenues that are located in the Campaign and West Frontier regions, as well as in the Northeast, North, Production, South, Taquari, and Rio Pardo Valleys regions, whereas the survival rates were extremely lower in the commercial sector and in financial intermediation activities. In the second analysis restricted to the commerce sector, the data highlighted the retail activities, accommodation and food activities sectors as the most affected in terms of overall survival. The results indicated that the survival of small business remained relatively strong during the COVID-19 pandemic, signaling the pertinent support from the government. The smallest business with revenues under USD 15,576 (BRL 81,000) per year were the most affected, with only 39% survival after 7 years. Some activities and some regions suffered more than others, emphasizing the need for special attention from authorities in future catastrophes.

Suggested Citation

  • Jorge Luis Tonetto & Josep Miquel Pique & Adelar Fochezatto & Carina Rapetti, 2024. "Survival Analysis of Small Business during COVID-19 Pandemic, a Brazilian Case Study," Economies, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-21, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:12:y:2024:i:7:p:184-:d:1433562
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/12/7/184/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/12/7/184/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fotopoulos, Georgios & Louri, Helen, 2000. "Location and Survival of New Entry," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 311-321, June.
    2. Nawal Abdalla Adam & Ghadah Alarifi, 2021. "Innovation practices for survival of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the COVID-19 times: the role of external support," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-22, December.
    3. Mata, Jose & Portugal, Pedro, 1994. "Life Duration of New Firms," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 227-245, September.
    4. Emmanuel Quansah & Dale E. Hartz, 2021. "Strategic adaptation: leadership lessons for small business survival and success," American Journal of Business, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 36(3/4), pages 190-207, February.
    5. Mariana Mazzucato & Rainer Kattel, 2020. "COVID-19 and public-sector capacity," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 36(Supplemen), pages 256-269.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Christos Genakos & Ioannis Kaplanis & Maria Theano Tagaraki & Aggelos Tsakanikas, 2023. "Firm Resilience and Growth during the Economics Crisis: lessons from the Greek depression," GreeSE – Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe 186, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.
    2. Boone, Christophe & Wezel, Filippo Carlo & van Witteloostuijn, Arjen, 2013. "Joining the pack or going solo? A dynamic theory of new firm positioning," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 511-527.
    3. Harald Strotmann, 2007. "Entrepreneurial Survival," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 87-104, January.
    4. Chen, Xiaohong & Cao, Yu & Wang, Fuqiang, 2010. "A life cycle analysis of Hunan's enterprises and their determinants," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 470-481, September.
    5. Miguel Manjón-Antolín & Josep-Maria Arauzo-Carod, 2008. "Firm survival: methods and evidence," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 1-24, March.
    6. Anna Ferragina & Fernanda Mazzotta, 2018. "Firm Employment Resilience and FDI: Evidence from Italy," L'industria, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 4, pages 523-556.
    7. Peter Huber & Harald Oberhofer & Michael Pfaffermayr, 2014. "Job creation and the intra-distribution dynamics of the firm size distribution," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 23(1), pages 171-197, February.
    8. Dinh, Thi Thanh Binh, 2014. "Determinants to the existence of foreign firms in Vietnam," Papers 943, World Trade Institute.
    9. Christos, Genakos & Kaplanis, Ioannis & Tagaraki, Maria Theano & Tsakanikas, Aggelos, 2023. "Firm resilience and growth during the economics crisis: lessons from the Greek depression," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119705, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Marcelo Resende & Vicente Cardoso & Luis Otávio Façanha, 2016. "Determinants of survival of newly created SMEs in the Brazilian manufacturing industry: an econometric study," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 1255-1274, June.
    11. Filippo Randelli & Giorgio Ricchiuti, 2015. "The Survival of Tuscan Firms," Working Papers - Economics wp2015_02.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    12. Harald Strotmann, 2002. "Determinanten des Überlebens von Neugründungen in der badenwürttembergischen Industrie. Eine empirische Survivalanalyse mit amtlichen Betriebsdaten," IAW Discussion Papers 06, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW).
    13. Canfei He & Rudai Yang, 2016. "Determinants of Firm Failure: Empirical Evidence from China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 72-92, March.
    14. Efthymios Tsionas & Theodore Papadogonas, 2006. "Firm exit and technical inefficiency," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 535-548, June.
    15. Mohd Irfan, 2012. "Determinants of Firms’ Liquidation and Acquisition in the Indian Electronics Industry," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 6(1), pages 75-90, February.
    16. Stefan Buehler & Christian Kaiser & Franz Jaeger, 2012. "The geographic determinants of bankruptcy: evidence from Switzerland," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 231-251, July.
    17. Champagne, Marie-Pier & Dubé, Jean & Legros, Diègo, 2024. "Standing strong? The causal impact of metro stations on service firms’ survival," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    18. Moore, Don A. & Cain, Daylian M., 2007. "Overconfidence and underconfidence: When and why people underestimate (and overestimate) the competition," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 197-213, July.
    19. Insoo Cho & Peter F. Orazem, 2021. "How endogenous risk preferences and sample selection affect analysis of firm survival," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1309-1332, April.
    20. Talat Mahmood, 1997. "Survival of Newly Founded Businesses: A Log-Logistic Model Approach," CIG Working Papers FS IV 97-32, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).

    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:gam:jecomi:v:12:y:2024:i:7:p:184-:d:1433562. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.