UK Partner
Myropi Garri, senior lecturer in Strategic Management Faculty SMI/BaL
Ukraine Partner
Maryna Shepel, associate professor, Faculty of public management and administration Institute of Economics and Management
Co-Investigators
Oleksandr Balan, Head of Department Department of Public Management and Administration, Institute of Economics and Management, Odesа Polytechnic National University
Project objectives
The project complies with paragraphs 1, 7 of Topics of scientific research and scientific and technical (experimental) developments of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine for 2022 ‒ 2026. It will contribute to the development of recommendations on: implementation of state policy in the field of education, science, innovation and technology transfer; research and solution of problems of social inequalities, tensions and conflicts that occur as a result of large-scale migration of the population from the occupied and front-line territories. The result of a full-scale war in Ukraine was the mass migration of the population from the occupied and front-line territories. Similar processes took place in 2014 at the first attempt to seize territories, but to a lesser extent.
Large and small communities in the west, centre and south of Ukraine accepted refugees from 10% to 50%of their pre-war population, which creates preconditions for social inequality, tensions, unemployment and conflicts. That is why territorial communities need help in creating mechanisms for the development of small businesses to ensure national security, their development and post-war recovery.
The project proposes to conduct research and create a set of methods and mechanisms to stimulate the development of small business from the community. That is, for the first time, it is proposed to the community to act as a stimulant, incubator and accelerator for small businesses.
Project goals
A crisis is conceptualized as an event that generates important disturbances for economies, companies and people (Pearson and Claire, 1998). Various severe world-wide crises, such as the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 crisis, have affected the global market during the last decades. Regionally, natural disasters, political unrest, refugee crises have reshaped economic conditions and majorly disrupted business operations. Most recently, the Russian invasion to Ukraine has a detrimental impact on the global economy and on the local small businesses in various ways. It has created a wide variety of challenging conditions such as reduced business activity, temporary or permanent business closures, immigration and migration, staffing issues and supply chain disruptions.
At the same time, times of crises can provide opportunities for new business development and restructuring of the economy. Although SMEs, compared to larger firms, face greater challenges in times of crisis (Shane, 2011), they may also be in a better position to sense, evaluate and seize new opportunities (Davidsson, 2015; Shepherd & Williams, 2018), and even transform, generating significant implications and spill overs for the wider economies and societies they belong.
Despite the huge impact of crises on small business and entrepreneurship, research has recently started to explore the effect of crises on SMEs operations and success (Bartz and Winkler, 2016; Davidsson and Gordon, 2016; Devece et al., 2016; Giotopoulos et al., 2017; Williams and Vorley, 2017), on the entrepreneurial financing ecosystems (Block and Sandner, 2009), and on the way entrepreneurs make decisions and operate in times of crisis (Cucculelli and Peruzzi, 2020; Doern, 2016; Mayr et al., 2017; Ogawa and Tanaka, 2013).
The proposed project aims to enrich current knowledge on the way (how) SMEs and entrepreneurs are impacted by war conditions, make sense of and respond to a huge war crisis, how they operate and adjust in times of crisis and to explore the effectiveness of various forms of institutional support.
Specifically, the objectives of this research are:
RO1: To identify the major challenges war imposed to SMEs and entrepreneurs in Ukraine.
RO2: To identify important entrepreneurial opportunities for SMEs emerging during and after the war in Ukraine.
RO3: To identify the mechanisms that can be used, and the operational best practices that can be developed to sense and seize these opportunities, and thereafter transform the strategies and resource portfolio of the SME, so as to assist the company exploit the opportunities and face the challenges.
RO4: To explore the role of institutional support towards the survival and growth of the SME and provide recommendations that would make this support effective.
Role of each Partner
The Ukrainian partner will contribute to the development of the conceptual framework, research and methods framework, and discussion of the results, and writing up of the project and any related publications.
The UK partner will contribute to the development of the conceptual framework, research and methods framework, and discussion of the results, and writing up of the project and any related publications.The Research Assistant will undertake the data collection, data analysis and translation of the interview responses in English.
Timing
Project Start Date: 1st February 2023
Project End Date: 31 st August 2023
Expected results
1. Once finished, the research project will provide managerial guidelines to SMEs and to communities, on the ways that SMEs can face challenges and seize opportunities in the Ukrainian market. These guidelines could include for example the exploration of new markets, the identification of priority areas for business, recommendation of logistics routes, and creation of logistics public hubs, involvement of public-private partnership mechanisms, cooperation and coopetition strategies for value-creation and knowledge enhancement.
2. A future bid on training migrants and veterans in entrepreneurship and small business management, and training communities on how to help migrant and veterans start-up new businesses.
3. The results of the research will drive the development of:
-- One paper on the "Major Constrains SMEs face in times of war and strategies to overcome them". The targeted journal for this paper is the “International: Small Business Journal”, which is an ABS3.
-- A second paper on "Dynamic Capabilities development for Agility and Resilience of SMES in times of war crisis". The Targeted journal for this paper is the “Journal of Small Business Management”, which is an ABS3.
