Lebanese University

Faculty of Economic
and Business Administration-Branch 3

The effect of covid-19 on business continuity of

Microenterprises

Senior Research Project to fulfill the requirements of

Master’s Degree Professional in Business Administration

Major: Management

Prepared by:

Juana Mohamad Amine

Committee Members:

Dr. Maya Naja (Supervisor)

Dr. Safwan Al Danawi (Reader)
Dr. Salam Sami (Reviewer)

Academic year
2020-2021

1
 Acknowledgements

The completion of this study could not have been possible without the expertise of my

primary supervisor Dr. Maya Naja, thank you for guiding, helping and supporting me in this

process and its requirements. I have learned a lot from your knowledge and experience while

accomplishing my Thesis, I will always be grateful for your encouragement and patience.

I would also like to acknowledge with much appreciation the roles of the reader Dr. Safwan

Al Danawi, and the reviewer Dr. Salam Sami. I would really like to express my gratitude for

all the Supervisors, Readers and Reviewers who are supporting their students in every way

possible in the difficult circumstances that the World and especially Lebanon is passing

through.

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 Dedication

This research is dedicated to my family who have always supported me in my ongoing

pursuit of academics and knowledge. In addition to Almighty God who has protected me and

guided my life by enabling me to reach such greater heights.

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 Table of Contents
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 2

Dedication .................................................................................................................................. 3

Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... 4

Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 7

Chapter I .................................................................................................................................... 8

General Introduction .................................................................................................................. 8

Chapter II ................................................................................................................................. 10

The impact of COVID-19 on the micro-enterprises ................................................................ 10

Section I: Context of crisis management ............................................................................. 11

I.1. Context of crisis: Definition and Types..................................................................... 11

I-1.1. Definition of crisis.............................................................................................. 11

I-1.2. Types of crisis .................................................................................................... 12

I-1.3. Crisis stages........................................................................................................ 14

I-2. Crisis management .................................................................................................... 16

I-2.1. Definition ........................................................................................................... 16

I-2.2. Action plan of the crisis management ................................................................ 16

I-2.3. Tools for the Action plan ................................................................................... 17

Section II: Impact of COVID-19 on microenterprises......................................................... 19

II-1. Impact of Covid-19 on business performance of microenterprises ......................... 19

II-1.1. Covid-19 crisis .................................................................................................. 19

II-1.2. Microenterprises: Definition and Characteristic ............................................... 20

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 II-1.3. Performance of microenterprises: Definition and types ................................... 22

II-1.4. Impact on business performance of microenterprises....................................... 23

II-1.5. Impact on business continuity of microenterprises........................................... 25

II-2. Statement of problem and research questions.......................................................... 28

Chapter III ................................................................................................................................ 29

Research Methodology ............................................................................................................ 29

Section I: Importance of micro enterprises in Lebanon ....................................................... 29

Section II: Research Design ................................................................................................. 31

II-1. Statement of problem, research questions and research propositions ..................... 31

II-2. Research Approach: Inductive ................................................................................. 31

II-3. Research methods .................................................................................................... 32

II-3.1. Qualitative Methods .......................................................................................... 33

II-3.1.1. Semi structured interview .......................................................................... 33

II-3.1.2. Interview Guide ......................................................................................... 33

II-3.2. Sample of population ........................................................................................ 35

II.3.3. Presentation of microenterprise......................................................................... 37

II-4. Data Analysis: Content Analysis ............................................................................. 38

Chapter IV................................................................................................................................ 41

Results and Discussion ............................................................................................................ 41

Section I: Presentation of categories ................................................................................... 41

I-1. Crisis faced by the microenterprises ......................................................................... 41

I-1.1. Pandemic of Covid-19 (14/15) ........................................................................... 41

I-1.2. Lebanon's economic crisis (15/15) ..................................................................... 42

I-2. Impact of the Covid-19 on the performance ............................................................. 43

I-2.1. Impact of the Covid-19 on the microenterprise profit ....................................... 43

I-2.2. Impact of Covid-19 on human resources ........................................................... 45

I-3. Impact of the Covid-19 on the business continuity ................................................... 48

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 I-4. Covid-19 and opportunities ....................................................................................... 50

I-5. Management Crisis.................................................................................................... 52

I-5.1. Actions used to face the economic crisis ........................................................... 52

I-5.2. Actions took to face the pandemic ..................................................................... 54

Section II: Research Results ............................................................................................... 57

II-1. Covid-19 and Micro-Enterprises’ Profit .................................................................. 57

II-2. Covid-19 and human resources................................................................................ 58

II-3. Covid-19 and business continuity ............................................................................ 58

II-4. Covid-19 and Opportunities..................................................................................... 59

II-5. Crisis Management and type of strategies ............................................................... 59

II-6. Link with the economic crisis .................................................................................. 60

Chapter V ................................................................................................................................. 62

Conclusion & Recommendations ............................................................................................ 62

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 65

Index ........................................................................................................................................ 69

List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... 71

List of figures ........................................................................................................................... 72

6
 Abstract
The covid-19 pandemic that started in 2019 and spread to more than 200 countries had a
significant impact on businesses world-wide. The studies on the impact of a crisis on small-
scale businesses seem to be scarce. Therefore, this study aimed to study the impact of covid-
19 on business continuity of microenterprises in Lebanon. The literature context of the study
was presented. Moreover, we interviewed 15 owners of microenterprises in Lebanon and coded
their answers. We then analyzed and discussed the results. The results showed us that the
pandemic created new opportunities and increased the profitability for some microenterprises.
However, despite the positives, the pandemic of covid-19 alongside the economic crisis
negatively affected employees’ motivation and business continuity. At the end, the research
limitations were listed and recommendations were proposed in light of the research findings.
Keywords: Covid-19, pandemic, crisis, economic crisis, business continuity, microenterprise.

Résumé
La pandémie de covid-19 qui a commencé en 2019 et s'est propagée à plus de 200 pays a eu
un impact significatif sur les entreprises du monde entier. Les études sur l'impact d'une crise
sur les petites entreprises semblent rares. Par conséquent, cette étude visait à étudier l'impact
du covid-19 sur la continuité des activités des microentreprises au Liban. Le contexte
bibliographique de l'étude a été présenté. De plus, nous avons interrogé 15 propriétaires de
microentreprises au Liban et codé leurs réponses. Nous avons ensuite analysé et discuté les
résultats. Les résultats nous ont montré que la pandémie a créé de nouvelles opportunités et
augmenté la rentabilité de certaines microentreprises. Cependant, malgré les points positifs, la
pandémie de covid-19 ainsi que la crise économique ont eu un impact négatif sur la motivation
des employés et la continuité des activités. À la fin, les limites de la recherche ont été
énumérées et des recommandations ont été proposées à la lumière des résultats de la recherche.
Mots clés : Covid-19, pandémie, crise, crise économique, continuité d'activité,
microentreprise.

‫الخالصة‬
‫ دولة تأثير كبير على الشركات في جميع أنحاء‬200 ‫ وانتشر إلى أكثر من‬2019 ‫ الذي بدأ في عام‬covid-19 ‫كان لوباء‬
‫ هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى دراسة‬، ‫ لذلك‬.‫ يبدو أن الدراسات حول تأثير األزمة على األعمال التجارية الصغيرة نادرة‬.‫العالم‬
‫ عالوة على ذلك‬.‫ تم عرض السياق األدبي للدراسة‬.‫ على استمرارية األعمال للمؤسسات الصغيرة في لبنان‬19- ‫تأثير كوفيد‬
‫ أظهرت النتائج أن الوباء‬.‫ من أصحاب المشاريع الصغيرة في لبنان و قمنا بتحليل ومناقشة النتائج‬15 ‫أجرينا مقابالت مع‬
covid-‫ أثر جائحة‬، ‫ على الرغم من اإليجابيات‬، ‫ ومع ذلك‬.‫صا جديدة وزاد من ربحية بعض المشاريع الصغيرة‬ ً ‫خلق فر‬
‫ تم سرد قيود البحث واقترحت‬، ‫ في النهاية‬.‫إلى جانب األزمة االقتصادية سلبًا على تحفيز الموظفين واستمرارية األعمال‬19
.‫التوصيات في ضوء نتائج البحث‬

.‫ مشاريع متناهية الصغر‬، ‫ استمرارية األعمال‬، ‫ أزمة اقتصادية‬، ‫ أزمة‬، ‫ جائحة‬، 19- ‫ كوفيد‬:‫الكلمات المفتاحية‬

7
 Chapter I
General Introduction

Starting December 2019, a virus called Covid-19 that causes respiratory problems, hit the
world and reached over 200 countries world-wide. The virus reached Australia, Asia and
Europe. The (World Organisation Health, 2020) classified this breakout as a global pandemic.
Booth (1993) defines a crisis as a case or situation that cannot be faced with the usual course
of action. Therefore, the pandemic of Covid-19 can be classified as a crisis, since it has affected
most of world as well as the global economy. The coronavirus epidemic’s effect on the
worldwide economy can be major and fast. In order to stand out in today’s epoch, countries as
well as businesses need to recover.

The impact of covid-19 outbreak can be severe, and recovery is crucial in order to survive in
today’s new lifestyle (Chinazzi & al, 2020). However, (Quarantelli & Lagadec, 2007) states
that there isn’t enough information about recovery and troubleshooting problems post-crisis
for small businesses. Therefore, little is known about the issues that small businesses have to
deal with after going through a crisis. This research proposes that there should be an important
focus on crisis management strategies in micro-enterprises, as this is a very important sector in
the economy of Lebanon.

In this research, we aim to study how the covid-19 worldwide pandemic impacts the various
small businesses. Our main focus is going to be on its impact on micro-enterprises and how it
affects their business performance and continuity. We will also study how the microenterprises
deal with such a crisis. The problem of our research is described as followed: “What is the
impact of the pandemic of COVID-19 on business continuity of microenterprises in the
North of Lebanon?”.

The central research questions are:

1. Did the covid-19 pandemic impact business continuity of microenterprises in the North
of Lebanon?

2. Did the covid-19 pandemic impact business performance of microenterprises in the

North of Lebanon?

3. How did the microenterprises deal with covid-19 pandemic in the North of Lebanon?

8
In order to provide answers to our problem and our research questions, we mobilized a
literature referring to determining the impact of the pandemic of COVID-19 on business
continuity of microenterprises. We adopted a qualitative approach based on semi-structured
interviews with directors of microenterprises in North of Lebanon. We will also adopt a
inductive method, concluding propositions from our obtained results.

Our thesis divided into five different chapters:

Chapter 1, introduces the background of the study, the study problem, the central research
questions, as well as presenting the structure of the whole thesis

Chapter 2, The impact of Covid-19 on the micro-enterprises, presents the research literature
review which consists of two sections. The first section exposes the context of crisis managing
by defining it and listing the different crisis management stages, plan and process. This section
also develops the covid-19 crisis. The second section presents the impact of covid-19 on
microenterprises by defining microenterprises and listing its characteristics and performance.
This section also discusses the impact of crisis on first the business performance then on the
business continuity of microenterprises.

Chapter 3, Research Methodology, covers the methodology of the study in two sections. The
first section, lays out the importance of microenterprises in Lebanon as well as presentation of
the interviewed microenterprises. The second section, research design, lays out the statement
of problem, the research questions, and describes the inductive qualitative approach. It also
presents the structure of the interviews as well as the interview guide. This section also presents
the data analysis.

Chapter 4, Results and Discussions, is composed of two sections. The first section, presents
the obtained results from the interviewed owners of micro-enterprises. The second section,
analyses these results and concluded propositions that sum up the impact of covid-19 on the
business continuity of microenterprises in Lebanon.

Chapter 5, Conclusion, it summarizes the findings of the study and enables us to reject or
accept our hypotheses.

9
 Chapter II
The impact of COVID-19 on the micro-enterprises

The respiratory outbreak of Covid-19 that arose from Wuhan, China in 2019 affected more
than 200 countries including Australia, Europe, America, and Europe (Larsson et al, 2010).

Due to the worldwide pandemic of Covid-19, most countries have enforced many regulations
to try and contain the virus outbreak such as social distancing, quarantining, travel restrictions,
and events’ postponements for at least two weeks in different countries. However, in many
countries these covid-19 restrictions caused a lot of psychological problems such as stress,
depression, and anxiety (Ghani, 2020). This pandemic also affected economic activities such
as disordering of product delivery chains and closure of retail premises and stores (Kraus &
Clauss, 2020).

The Covid-19 crisis can be considered as an unforeseen threat, as the pandemic quickly
developed and didn’t only affect organizations but entire sector of the economy. A crisis,
according to Booth (1993), is a situation that an individual or organization face which they
can’t deal with the way they normally deal with things. (Booth, 1993) categorizes a crisis in
three types, gradual threat, periodic threat and sudden threat.

The literature review part consists of two main sections. The first section presents the
theoretical part relating to the context of crisis management. While the second section discusses
the impact of COVID-19 on microenterprises.

10
Section I: Context of crisis management
In this section, we define crisis management and list its different stages, plan and process. We
also discuss the covid-19 crisis.

I.1. Context of crisis: Definition and Types

I-1.1. Definition of crisis

A crisis is an unforeseen situation that doesn’t give individuals enough time to prepare to deal
with it. It is sudden and fast paced. A crisis, by definition, is a situation or a combination of
circumstances that put the safety, survival and reputation of an individual or organization at
risk (Junhong et al, 2010).

Crisis involves surprises, short timeframe for a response, threat (Tarawneh, 2011), and
overwhelms the individual or organization’s power and needs a lot of effort to be able to
recover and get back to normal (Al-Kahashali et al, 2007). According to (Abdul Samee &
Tayyibah, 2010), crisis is an unusual situation that poses great risk to organizations and
business that could lead to a catastrophe if ignored or not dealt with properly. Therefore, if the
crisis develops with no set-in strategy that could manage it, the business could face catastrophic
consequences.

According to (Hermann, 1963) as cited by (Larsson et al, 2010), on an organizational level, a

crisis can be defined through three dimensions:

(1) puts the organization’s value of high priority at risk

(2) enforce a limited timeframe during which a response can be made

(3) unseen and unplanned for by the business

An organization can face two types of crises: community crisis and non-community crisis. A
community crisis can be divided into multiple sub categories like natural crisis, industrial crisis
and non-industrial crisis. The non-industrial crisis englobes conflict crisis and non-conflict
crisis (Shale et al, 2003).

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This categorization of crises can be summarized in the following figure:

Figure 1: Types of Crisis

Source: (Larsson et al, 2010)

I-1.2. Types of crisis

Multiple academics contend that there isn’t one type of natural crisis but that crises have
different forms. As it appears in the table, according to (Shrivastava & Mitroff, 1987) cited by
(Larsson et al, 2010), Fairbanks (2002) categorized the information based on the following
crisis categories:

Table 1: Types of crisis

Source: (Larsson et al, 2010)

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(Shrivastava & Mitroff, 1987) as cited by (Larsson et al, 2010), crises can be distributed along
two dimensions internal-external dimension and technical-social dimension. The following
figure summarizes the two dimensions with the internal-external dimension on the horizontal
axis and the technical-social dimension on the vertical axis.

Figure 2: Types of corporate crisis

Source: (Larsson et al, 2010)

As shown figure 2, there are multiple crises that can impact an organization. In cell 1, it is
shown the consequences of an organization’s internal economic and technical negligence,
specifically the organization’s core technology. An example would be Chernobyl, Three Mile
Island, Bhopal that were the outcome of defective equipment.

In cell 2, it shown the crises that are a result of technological and economical failures but these
are attributed to the environment around the organization and not the organization itself. Some
examples would be changes in exchange rates, aggressive takeovers, and other macroeconomic
changes that negatively influence an organization (Shrivastava & Mitroff, 1987). The rest of
the cells are characterized as failures due to human, organizational, or social factors.

Cell 3 shows the failures in internal social factors. Such failures are mainly the cause of
managerial mistakes, purposeful harm, bad working environment and so on. These crises could
have been avoided if the impacted organization put in action better communication. For
example, the space shuttle Challenger, affecting NASA and its suppliers.

13
The fourth and final cells shows the social environmental failures surrounding an organization.
Meaning, crisis that take place when institutions or agents have a negative reaction towards an
organization. For example, sabotage by outsiders and executive kidnapping (Shrivastava &
Mitroff, 1987).

I-1.3. Crisis stages

The crisis phenomenon happens in multiple stages and form a continuous chain of events,
actions, consciousness and adjustment of acquired knowledge.

A) Incubation period

Firstly, prior to the crisis, multiple insignificant warnings would take place of which the
severity and frequency differs. These signals minimally affect an organization but won’t be
reported and therefore no action will take place. At this stage, the risk needs to be identified,
looked into and diagnosed. Afterwards, it is crucial to prepare each person in the organization
how to act in the crisis. In fact, at this stage, the information source should be determined,
which is important for the upstream thinking (Gavan, 2008).

B) Triggering event

Secondly, a threatening situation arises which can affect the organization’s sustainability. The
organization then enter the phase of crisis and studies the crisis situation, and fastens the
decision making process and puts in place a crisis service (Pursianien, 2018).

C) Acute phase

The third stage is the crisis peak. During this phase, the business survival largely depends on
the business management. The impact on the company and its stakeholders has little to no
importance. In abnormal circumstances, the business should call the expert crisis service
(Gavan, 2008).

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D) Operational responses

During this fourth phase, there must be specific processes set and ready to be activated. There’s
tension but is isn’t at its peak. The crisis has reached its peak and its representation on the
media is slowly decreasing. This is considered as the unstable downward period which can be
explained by the supports’ update (Pursianien, 2018).

E) Crisis recovery

At this stage, the business dealt with the crisis and the crisis is now over, and the work has
gotten back to normal as the situation becomes somewhat stable. At this point, the organization
shouldn’t trust what is shown. The crisis seems to be over but that doesn’t mean that the
consequences are. The following steps, experience feedback and managerial readjustments
cannot be skipped (Gavan, 2008).

F) Experience feedback

At this phase, the organization should share feedback on its current situation. The crisis has
now disappeared and the media is no longer showing or talking about it. Organizations usually
ignore this step and try to contain the crisis notion as well as the difficulties that it entails.
However, the crisis will not go away completely (Pursianien, 2018).

G) Managerial readjustments

This needs a formal analysis of all the operations of the company in order to avoid the outspread
of crisis to other components and avoid repeating the same mistakes as the past. The following
tasks will then be carried out: financial, social, economic and operational assessments to
determine the impact of the crisis on the various functions of the organization (Gavan, 2008).

15
I-2. Crisis management
I-2.1. Definition

In order to deal with the crisis, the business will take a set of measures in order to protect the
organization from any threat that can endanger its continuity (Elliott et al, 2005). It is the
management of business during the crisis period (House et al, 2001). Thus, crisis management
(CM) is a crucial element of making sure the organization is stable and safe. Organizations
should keep updating their crisis management policies to make sure they can keep up and
respond in time to the changes in their dynamic environment. Crisis management has been
defined as a list of regulation that are put in place and applied when trying to contain or resolved
with an emergency case in a planned way (Junhong et al, 2010). It can be considered as a four-
stage process of reduction, preparedness, response and recovery, which is an important part of
contemporary strategic management.

I-2.2. Action plan of the crisis management

Pearson and Midriff (1993) categorized the CM into five steps and defined what course of
action the organization needs to take in each of the steps as well as the most appropriate task
for each stage. This presents the organization with the information that it needs to successfully
accomplish each task (Pearson et al, 1993).

A) The discovery of warning

This is the period prior to the crisis and gives the organization the ability to deal with warnings
that could lead to a crisis. This stage includes preventive measures that would make the
organization avoid the crisis or at least lessen its severity and its consequences. This stage
ensure the organization’s preparedness for the crisis (Ahmed, 2010).

B) The preparedness and prevention

This is the stage where a company prepare to face the crisis or to avoid the crisis. Scenarios
are studied and develop that could predict a crisis based on early signs. The main aim is to
lessen the damage and consequences of the crisis all while taking the necessary actions to
prevent it (Al-Harthi, 2012).

16
C) The containing the damage

This stage deals with keeping the crisis under control and avoiding its spread. At this stage, the
crisis is at its peak. The organization starts implementing the rules pre-set to reduce the impact
of the crisis, while using the companies’ efforts to limit the damages which are the result of the
crisis occurrence (Al-Mutairi, 2011).
Restoration process happens through implementing programs that were set pre-crisis and that
have been examined to make sure of their ability to live up to their role. Moreover, the company
relies on a system of communication that aids the responsible during the decision-making
process in order to reach the desired outcome in time. Thus, to ensure the company’s ability to
restore its activities and work as usual pre-crisis (Al-Kahashali et al, 2007).

D) The stage of learning the moral lessons

This is the stage where companies need to learn and benefit from the experience they went
through in order to develop a better system that deals with crises. This system, thanks to this
crisis, should then include the company’s points of weakness, points of strength, the set actions
to take or to avoid during the crisis in order to avoid issues and failures in the future when
faced with another crisis (Bundy et al, 2017).

I-2.3. Tools for the Action plan

The crisis management plan must include the following elements: the crisis unit, mission
sheets, tool sheets and appendices.

A) The crisis unit

This is where the information is collected and processed. This when the decision-making
process happens. Once every hour, the crisis staff hand in information, study actions and
categorizes the company’s priorities.
This unit’s main aim is to clearly identify the various stakeholders of the company during a
crisis and allow managers to study information and schedules in a thorough manner
(Pursianien, 2018).

17
B) Mission sheets

These are tools, on the communication and management aspect, that clarifies each person’s
responsibility in their tasks and define the role of each actor upstream, downstream and
downstream in crisis management (Pursianien, 2018).

C) Tool sheets

This list’s aim is to facilitate the data transmission and dissemination during crisis management
and to better efficiency (Pursianien, 2018).

D) Annexes

These anneces allow every stakeholder to find the information they need in order to participate
in the crisis management structure. Examples are crisis catalogs and backup site plans
(Pursianien, 2018).

In this section we developed the context of crisis management by defining the crisis and
categorizing it into multiple sub-categories while noting that there are different types of crises
that can be internal (issue within the organization) as much as external (pandemic or natural
crisis). We also defined crisis management and cited the action plan of the crisis management
as well the tools needed. Since our research objective is to study the impact of the pandemic
of COVID-19 on business continuity of microenterprises in the North of Lebanon, we’re going
to further develop the impact of COVID-19 on microenterprises.

18
Section II: Impact of COVID-19 on microenterprises

In this section, we will expose the Covid-19 and define microenterprises and list its different
characteristics. We also define performance of microenterprises and list the various types of
performance. Finally, we will discuss the impact of covid-19on the business performance of
microenterprises.

II-1. Impact of Covid-19 on business performance of microenterprises

The COVID-19 crisis, which started in China and spread world-wide, had severe consequences
that were not only psychological but also organizational. In fact, it had diverse impacts on
business performance. The pandemic impacted businesses in four different ways including:
business closure/limited business hours, proportion of patronage, level of business turnover;
and employee motivation.

II-1.1. Covid-19 crisis

The widespread covid-19 pandemic has reached all continents ever since it started (Qiu &
Rutherford, 2017). World Health Organization has classified this outbreak as a pandemic
because the contagious virus was rapidly spreading and causing more than 200 thousand deaths
the first three months it started (World Organisation Health, 2020). As a matter of fact, the
covid-19 outbreak had the highest infection rates and deaths in comparison with other
coronavirus outbreak such as sars-cove (Liu & Gayle, 2020).

Prior research has shown that restrictions on movement is the best way to contain the spread
of infectious disease such as the coronavirus (Chinazzi & al, 2020). Multiple countries has
enforced travel restrictions, social distancing, quarantining such as Philippines and Singapore
(Chinazzi & al, 2020).

However, in many countries these covid-19 restrictions caused a lot of psychological problems
such as stress, depression, and anxiety (Ghani, 2020). This pandemic also affected economic

19
activities such as disordering of product delivery chains and closure of retail premises and
stores (Kraus & Clauss, 2020).

The Covid-19 crisis can be considered as an unforeseen threat, as the pandemic quickly
developed and didn’t only affect organizations but entire sector of the economy. A crisis,
according to Booth (1993), is a situation that an individual or organization face which they
can’t deal with the way they normally deal with things. (Booth, 1993) categorizes a crisis in
three types, gradual threat, periodic threat and sudden threat (Karabag, 2020).

Clearly, this pandemic has caused major focus on most countries and spiked up interest to study
how companies deal with unprecedented crisis (Karabag, 2020). This crisis forced countries
all around the world to come up with crisis management strategies. The impact of this outbreak
can be catastrophic and recovery is a must to get back to normal (Liu & Gayle, 2020).

On a scale of large company strategy of business continuity, multiple analyses have been made
on various businesses that depend on the manufacturers in the region. However, studies on
micro-enterprises in under-developed countries are scarce (Herbane, 2013). Most studies on
crisis management are focused on epidemic disease outbreaks (Ritchie, 2003), natural disasters
(Fabeil, 2019), economic and financial crisis (Devece & Armengot, 2016) and inadvertent
disaster and terrorisms (Cook, 2015).

Even though the impact of the pandemic has been covered, but there isn’t much work on direct
influence of the pandemic on micro-enterprises. (Karabag, 2020) claim that small businesses
in under-developed areas got more impacted than small businesses in developed areas
(Karabag, 2020). Before developing the impact of the Covid-19 on the microenterprises, we
will define the latter, expose their characteristics and specify the concept of performance.

II-1.2. Microenterprises: Definition and Characteristic

A sole ownership, also known as a personal business, is a micro-enterprise. It serves as a model

for artisans, traders, and the liberal careers. In this case, the businessman is working on his or
her own and is considered self-employed. He is regarded as the sole manpower of
microenterprises. He is both the buyer and seller, casually keeps the accounts for himself, and
prioritizes proximity in the management of stakeholder relations (family, customers, suppliers,

20
etc.). Thus, because the company has no assets of its own, it is confused with the entrepreneur,
who is personally and indefinitely liable for the company's debts on his personal property.

The micro-enterprises are based on two theoretical currents: the current of diversity and the
current of specificity (Torrès, 2015). The specificity current considers the microenterprises
have certain characteristics specific to them that make them look like a homogenous whole.
The diversity current depends on the entrepreneur. Each small business stands out from the
other by the activities that they do. Their diverse activities, goals and visions differentiate them
from other micro-enterprises (Nkakleu, 2016) and also reflect the business success (Sogbossi,
2010).

The microenterprise has many characteristics of which we’ll list a few (Larsson et al, 2010):

 All micro-enterprises tasks are conducted by one personnel who is usually the partner or
director. Even in small sectors run by a partnership company or firm. Practically, other
embers act as sleeping partner who only aid in acquiring funds (Larsson et al, 2010).
 The founder is the also the manager. Therefore, the management process is a personalized
one. The owner knows first-hand about what is going on in the businesses, The owner
effectively participates in all matters of the decision making process of the business
(Larsson et al, 2010).
 In comparison with bigger units, a micro enterprise has a shorter gestation period. Meaning,
the period after which the return on investment starts. Moreover, the extent of the micro-
enterprise operation is confined and meant to reach local demands (Larsson et al, 2010).
 Because micro units use locally available resources, they can be positioned anywhere,
relying on the availability of these resources such as raw materials, labor, and so on
(Larsson et al, 2010).
 Micro businesses are work intensive and require a lower capital investment than bigger
businesses. Compared with a corresponding factory system, the employment opportunities
with any given investment funding would be higher up to 20 times (Larsson et al, 2010).
 Micro businesses are decentralized and distributed to remote regions using local resources.
Therefore, the growth of small businesses in rural areas encourages more sustainable and
inclusive development on one hand, while preventing a flow of job seekers from
countryside to the cities and urbanizing centers on the other (Larsson et al, 2010).
 Lastly, in comparison with bigger businesses, small businesses are more susceptible to
change and more reaction to socioeconomic conditions. These businesses are more

21
 adaptable to changes such as introduction of new products, new materials, new way of
production, new organizations forms, etc.. (Larsson et al, 2010).

II-1.3. Performance of microenterprises: Definition and types

In management, performance has always been unclear and rarely had explicit definitions. Since
1980s, various researchers have tried to define but not until recently the notion has been used
in a managerial literature to study the implementation by the company of strategies of
sustainable development (Capron et al, 1995).

According to Naulleau et al (1998, p15) as cited by (Larsson et al, 2010), performance is

comparable to one accounting on one hand. On the other hand, performance is characterized
by an equity capital perimeter of the productivity of an operational service (Vianney, 2009).
The performance within a company is based on the value-cost ratio. The two terms are
inseparable because it is not a question of minimizing costs or maximizing the value produced,
but of optimizing the relationship between the two (Vianney, 2009).

(Leroy, 2008) defines performance as the accomplishment of organizational objectives

regardless of the objectives’ nature and variety.

This accomplishment can be comprehended in the narrow sense (results, outcome) or in the
broader sense of the process that leads to the outcomes. As a result, the author associates
performance with a type of quality, and thus with success, and methodically affiliates it with
the condition that this quality can be measured.

There are several types of performance:

- Financial performance: Performance has always been minimized to its financial element.
Performance. This performance includes the stakeholders reaching the profit desired while
ensuring the enterprises’ continuity. However, recently organizations have shifted from
perceiving performance strictly on a financial level to a more global level to include
environmental and social dimensions (Brignier, 2013).
- Social performance is the individual’s satisfaction level reached while taking parts in the
life of the organization. This performance’s evaluation is based on multiple standard such
as absenteeism, days of strike, and turnover. These criteria usually increase the satisfaction
level of any sort of employee and also improve the social environment (Bourguignon,

22
 2000). According to (Charpentier & Guillot-Soulez, 2004, p. 25), each organization has a
specific social performance tailored to it according to the organizational structure and
strategic objectives.
- Worker performance: Worker performance is conditioned by multiple elements that
reflect the organization’s level of safety and productivity. Certainly, the performance of a
person is reflected by their capability of that person to acknowledge all the problems related
to work. The greater the workers’ performance, the greater quality of products. Therefore,
bettering the worker’s performance aids the company in reaching its objective and allows
the company to keep a competitive edge within the market (Brignier, 2013).
- Organizational performance is regarded as the result that is equal or higher than the
organization's goal, taking into consideration the means used. Matter of fact, it is concerned
with how the business is structured to achieve its goals and how it maintains to do so.
Furthermore, the evaluation of organizational performance is based on two main concepts:
effectiveness and efficiency. Effectiveness measures the capacity of an organization to
reach its goals. which measures the organization's capacity to achieve its goals and
objectives. Efficiency is the ratio of means used to obtain the results (Melchior, 2013).
- Environmental performance is associated with the negative impacts of the organization
on the environment such as pollutants. Limiting these influences can boost the
organization’s performance and competitiveness. The organization needs to adopt less
harmful products for the environment in order to better its environmental performance and
thus grow its economic performance (Melchior, 2013).

II-1.4. Impact on business performance of microenterprises

The crisis of the covid-19 pandemic had multiple influences on the performance of businesses.
Mainly, the epidemic influenced businesses in four various ways: limited business hour,
proportion of patronage, level of business turnover; and employee motivation. The uncertainty
of the socio-economic state as well as the instability of the whole supply chain have directly
affected the business but also indirectly impacted the business performance. However, the
indirect influence of the pandemic affected both the essential and non-essential businesses alike
(Kraus & Clauss, 2020).

23
A) Business closure/ limited business hours

Due to the covid-19 pandemic, most countries enforced lockdown regulations and quarantining
to try and contain the spread of the virus (Gern, 2020). Most enterprises’ employees abided by
the first lockdown rules and stayed at home as businesses weren’t allowed to open their
workplace.

Although the businesses were allowed to carry out their work, but amid the enforced
regulations and restricted opening hours, it had an influence of their business turnover.
Moreover, the closure of the workplace when the work is still continuing implies that the
business is spending certain costs without generating revenue to deal with the business
expenses (Kraus & Clauss, 2020).

The pandemic of covid-19 affected businesses in different ways and different levels of severity.
However, the main moderating factor of this effect are policymakers as they were the one
deciding whether or not the business can open and what businesses can and can’t during
lockdown (Kraus & Clauss, 2020). The rule of business closure was mainly enforced on non-
essential businesses like the sector of education. Essential businesses like supermarket and
petrol stations were allowed to open but had to abide to limited opening hours (Gern, 2020).

B) Proportion of patronage

Besides the restricted opening hours, employees complained about a main covid-19 impact
which is the proportion of patronage they received from their customers. Because of the socio-
economic uncertainty and the disorganization of the supply chain brought by the pandemic,
customers were not patronizing their business like they used to (Gern, 2020).

For the non-essential businesses, they barely received any patronage during the pandemic. Due
to lockdown, employee in the different sectors were not receiving clients. This lead to a
decrease in the customer patronages proportion (Kraus & Clauss, 2020).

24
C) Level of Business turnover

Employees that worked in non-essential businesses didn’t have any turnover during the
pandemic. However, employees in essential businesses stated a reduction in the turnover
intention of businesses. A main reason of the reduction in turnover, is that even though policy
makers described such products as essential but customers do not need such products.
Moreover, during the pandemic, customers might be limiting their finances due to the financial
uncertainty of the pandemic. Additionally, the policymakers’ perception of essential products
may not be the same for everyone (McKibbin, 2020).

For example, usually only people who are average or rich buy cars (Gern, 2020). However,
during the pandemic, neither classes were working so they didn’t have the money to buy a car.
Moreover, even the ones who are financially able to purchase car, they might choose not to
until the end of the pandemic as it isn’t a necessity. This caused serious problems in the car
business (Kraus & Clauss, 2020).

D) Employee motivation

The covid-19 outbreak had an influence on employees’ motivation in various business sectors
(Weforum, 2020). In fact, the pandemic imposed difficulties on businesses to pay their
employees’ salaries and bonus. The was mainly due to the reduction of profit. This, however,
had a direct impact on employee motivation. This lead to demotivated and dishonest work.

The poor motivation environment, inability to pay wages increased the turnover intention of
employees and decreased employee productivity. This could had catastrophic impact on the
businesses as employees are the core of any business and their performance affects the
performance of enterprises (Gern, 2020).

II-1.5. Impact on business continuity of microenterprises

Several analyses have been conducted on businesses in the developed region that are dependent
on manufacturing in terms of large-company business continuity strategy. Micro-enterprise
studies, on the other hand, are scarce in developing countries (Herbane, 2013).

25
According to (McCharthy, 2003), crises bring out the most rational and logical elements in an
entrepreneur's thought process. In the face of economic competition, survival mechanisms for
dealing with crises include using alternative marketing channels, such as product
reengineering, or of the web (such as the use of low-cost or effective campaigns) (Bourletidis
& Triantafyllopoulos, 2014). In addition, when there is extreme environmental uncertainty,
like the current epidemic, small businesses will often fold if they are not able to quickly change.

Most studies on crisis management are focused on epidemic disease outbreaks (Ritchie, 2003),
natural disasters (Fabeil, 2019), economic and financial crisis (Devece & Armengot, 2016) and
inadvertent disaster and terrorisms (Cook, 2015). Furthermore, when there is extreme
environmental uncertainty, such as the current epidemic, small businesses frequently fail if
they are unable to quickly adapt.

- Some claim that businesses in rural areas are more affected than those in developed areas
(Karabag, 2020).
- In time of crisis, businesses should care about their profit on short-term and long-ter.
Research conducted by (Cook, 2015) showed that businesses that do not prepare for crises
end up failing within five years of them opening.
- During a crisis, Quarantelli et al (2007) suggest planning and managing processes.
Contingency management means utilizing strategies to deal with a crisis, whereas planning
anticipates its occurrence (Quarantelli & Lagadec, 2007).
Going forward, proactivity and flexibility were critical, but financial and human resources were
also required to address changing market conditions. Firms will be able to change products and
services in general if the economy improves (Kepenach, 2007). Businesses that can be open to
change and respond well to change will thrive. Resilient responses could be studied to better
understand how entrepreneurs and their contexts behave, their business models, and how they
help shape and/or restore socioeconomic communities (Pursianien, 2018).

According to (Margherita & HeikkilÄ, 2021). Pandemics are significant disruptions to the
regular service or delivery of goods within a system. Also, this pandemic has as significant
impact on business continuity of these enterprises.

The authors concentrate on business continuity as an ongoing strategy for entrepreneurs, as

well as the design of their strategies as a crisis solution in their plans. Typically, business
continuity planning includes operations mitigation and restoration (Cook, 2015). The business
continuity process is depicted in the diagram below:

26
 Figure 3: Business continuity process

Source: (Cook, 2015).

Obschonka et al. (2016) found that research into Coal Seam Gas (CSG) revealed that local
firms were facing economic uncertainty. Some of these businesses grew, but struggled as a
result of economic climate change initiatives in their community. Despite the fact that this
recession was smaller in scope than the previous one, researchers discovered the behavioral
changes required during recovery and decline periods.

It will be critical for their success to support this by establishing and maintaining network
relationships, as well as increasing cooperation. In times of financial transition, adaptability is
essential.

The plan serves as a reference point during a business continuity event or crisis, as well as the
blueprint for developing the event/crisis strategy and tactics. It can, in particular, provide
critical guidance on damage limitation during those brief windows of opportunity that
frequently occur at the start of a crisis (Smith, 2020).

Extreme supply chain disruptions and inefficiencies, for example, could put a stop to business
and survival. When international trade is linked or globalized, the damaging effects of
manufacturing, services, retail, and commerce on the environment are amplified
(Papadopoulos, Baltas, & Balta, 2020).

27
II-2. Statement of problem and research questions

The impact of Covid-19 pandemic outbreak on global socio-economy can be acute, and it is
crucial that recovery is essential to survive in a new normal way of living. However, little is
known about the challenges and the process in which small enterprises respond during and
after the outbreak crisis. This study suggests that micro-enterprise should be a central focus for
crisis management strategy, as the most important sector in the Lebanese economy is small and
medium enterprise (SME) in (Kraus & Clauss, 2020).

The problem of our research is described as followed: “What is the impact of the pandemic of
COVID-19 on business continuity of microenterprises in the North of Lebanon?”.

The central research questions are:

1) Did the covid-19 pandemic impact business continuity of microenterprises in the North
of Lebanon?
2) Did the covid-10 pandemic impact business performance of microenterprises in the
North of Lebanon?
3) How did the microenterprises deal with covid-19 pandemic?

Conclusion of Chapter II

In this chapter, we presented previous available literature on our study’s topic in two sections.
In the first section, we laid out the context of crisis management by defining the crisis and its
different types, then by presenting the crisis management. In the second section, we presented
the impact of covid-19 on business continuity and finished by presenting the statement of
problem and research questions.

28
 Chapter III
Research Methodology

The importance of this research lies in the proper application of research methodology. The
scientific process therefore constitutes one of the most important pillars for the evaluation of
academic work. In order to add credibility to our project, we will develop in this chapter, the
research design in the first section, and the presentation of the data collection in the second
section.

Section I: Importance of micro enterprises in Lebanon

Microenterprises dominate Lebanon's economy. The Central Administration for Statistics

(CAS) estimates the total number of existing businesses at 198,000 in its 1996 census of
buildings and establishments. Small businesses with fewer than five employees account for the
majority of operational businesses, accounting for 88 percent of the total, while businesses with
fewer than 50 employees account for 96 percent of the total.
If unclassified enterprises are excluded, these figures rise to around 91.3 percent and 99.2
percent, respectively (3.26 percent of total enterprises). Enterprises with fewer than 50
employees account for the majority of job opportunities in the country, accounting for 530,000
employees, or 51% of the total working population. Thus, microenterprises are very important
in Lebanon as they constitute a big part of its economy1.

Business approaches to COVID-19: Resilience of microenterprises and its importance on

the country’s economy

Small and medium-sized businesses around the world responded similarly in the early days of
the pandemic. They took precautions to protect employees and customers from infection and
informed clients whether the business would be temporarily closed. Many businesses also
sought assistance from the government, industry groups, and business support networks.
Businesses' responses varied beyond these common immediate tasks. Some people used
retreating strategies to get through the day, drawing down their assets. Many businesses laid

1
[online], http://www.intracen.org/ , (6/12/2021)

29
off workers, sold assets, or took on new debt, all of which may jeopardize their long-term
viability. 2

This approach was taken by approximately 20% of the businesses that participated in ITC's
COVID-19 survey. Other businesses pursued a resilience strategy, temporarily scaling down
or adjusting the business in order to resume full operations later. To be resilient during the
pandemic, strategies such as shifting the sales mix to online channels, sourcing from new
suppliers, and learning to telework were implemented. In order to deal with the pandemic,
approximately 60% of the businesses that responded to the ITC survey took this approach.

The most adaptable businesses adapted to the new situation by developing novel products such
as designer masks or rapid testing technologies. When lockdowns made it impossible for their
businesses to open, they loaned their employees to other active businesses in critical industries.
To cope, approximately 21% of the businesses polled in the ITC COVID-19 survey took this
approach. According to the survey results, smaller businesses were far more likely than larger
corporations to respond to the crisis in an agile manner.3.

At the same time, they tended to use retreating strategies more than larger companies. Small
businesses that exported were significantly less likely to retreat than those that only sold
domestically. Large businesses, on the other hand, were more likely to take a resilient approach
than smaller businesses, demonstrating their greater ability to weather the storm. The takeaway
from this analysis is that while large corporations can afford to stay put and be resilient, small
businesses must adapt quickly or risk failure. 4

2
IDM
3
IDM
4
IDM

30
Section II: Research Design

The following section is devoted to a reminder of our research problem and questions:

II-1. Statement of problem, research questions and research propositions

Statement of “What is the impact of the pandemic of COVID-19 on business continuity of

Problem microenterprises in the North of Lebanon?”.
1) Did the covid-19 pandemic impact business continuity of
Research
microenterprises in the North of Lebanon?
questions
2) Did the covid-10 pandemic impact business performance of
microenterprises in the North of Lebanon?
3) How did the microenterprises deal with covid-19 pandemic
Table 2: Statement of problem and research questions

II-2. Research Approach: Inductive

The scientific approach is divided into three: the inductive approach, the adductive approach
and the deductive approach.

- Inductive approach
"The inductive technique seeks to learn from the acquired data set in order to discover patterns
and correlations that can be used to construct a hypothesis." Researchers can always use
existing theories to create the research problem to be investigated, but the inductive technique
does not preclude the researcher from doing so, and there is no theory or hypothesis to use in
inductive inquiries. After the start of the research process, it is possible to change the focus of
the study (Saunders et al, 2012).

The first step is reasoning by induction. In this process, the researcher carries out a study on a
place chosen by him in order to study a behavior or a situation. After studying the latter, he
formulates his hypotheses based on his observation (Constant & Lévy, 2015).

31
- Adductive approach
Reasoning by abduction consists in observing one or more facts of which we know a possible
and most probable cause where we consider it as a hypothesis to affirm that it is probably the
cause already cited (Constant & Lévy, 2015).

- Deductive approach
The deductive method consists of formulating a hypothesis or hypotheses based on an existing
theory and then designing a research plan to test it (Wilson, 2010). Deduction is the process of
extrapolation from the particular to the general. In many circumstances, the relationship can be
valid if it exists in some theory or example case. “It is possible to examine the deductive design
to check whether this link or association is won by more general conditions” (Gulati, 2009).

Inductions is the reasoning behind our research. We will begin from specific observations
to broader generalizations and theories.

II-3. Research methods

The research methods constitute an importance in our methodology because it allows to present
the data collection tools. They can be of three types: qualitative, quantitative or mixed.
1. Quantitative methods highlight objective measurements and the statistical,
mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and
surveys, or by changing pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques.
The questionnaire consists of questions that are dichotomous, non-dichotomous or on
a scale
2. The mixed methods approach is a combination of the qualitative and quantitative
approaches and is believed to provide a deeper understanding than the two methods
alone.
3. Qualitative research method focuses primarily on exploring the difficulties faced, for
example, by a group of individuals. This approach is mainly shaped by in-depth
interviews and the researcher's interpretation of the data collected during the interviews.

Qualitative research uses impressions, opinions, and opinions to gather information that aims
to describe the topic rather than measure it. The qualitative survey is less structured: its aim is
to study a subject in more depth in order to obtain information on the motivations, reasoning

32
and attitudes of the respondents. Qualitative research is especially concerned with the context
of certain phenomena (Thornhill, 2009, p. 126).

In our research, we resort to the use of the qualitative method to acquire a deeper understanding
about the impact of the pandemic on micro-enterprises’ businesses continuity directly from the
owners. As these experiences cannot be easily put into numbers.

II-3.1. Qualitative Methods

Qualitative research design reveals the attitude of the target audience with reference to a
particular topic. They basically originate from behavioral and social science. Moreover, it
presents detailed outcomes and the inferences can be described easily from the data analysis.
Here are most commonly used qualitative methods are: interviews, observation, case study,
record keeping, content analysis, and focus groups. In this research, the interview method was
adopted.

II-3.1.1. Semi structured interview

The interview involves two people facing each other and as such cannot be considered as a
simple questionnaire in which we are in an anonymous relationship. Social relationships are
played out in an interview (Lefèvre, 2002). According to Grawitz (2003), interviews can be
classified under three types: non directive, semi- directive and directive.

For our part, we will adopt the method of semi-structured interview. Our qualitative analysis
is conducted through individual interviews carried out with small samples. According to
Bathelot (2017), we will carry out individual interviews during which we dictates only the
different themes to be addressed without practicing precise questioning.

II-3.1.2. Interview Guide

The personal interview can take different forms. This is a frequently used method for collecting
data. Unlike the questionnaire, this method is suitable for complex questions that require
additional explanation. The interview needs a guide for the person who is going to conduct it.

33
This guide gives structure to the interview and allows it to take place in good conditions. It
should be designed so that the interviewer knows how to proceed and asks the questions so that
the respondent's answers are as concrete as possible.

Table 3: Interview Guide

Categories Questions Goal
What’s your age? Know the age of respondents
I-Interviewee What’s your gender? Know the gender of respondents
Characteristics
What’s your job? Know the respondents’ job

II-Characteristics of the When was the microenterprise Know the date of formation of the
microenterprise first formed? microenterprise

Where is the microenterprise Know the microenterprise location

located?

What activities are conducted by Know the activities of the microenterprise

the microenterprise?

Did your microenterprise Know whether the microenterprise passed

previously face any crisis? through any crisis

What type of crisis did your Determine what types of crisis did the
microenterprise face? microenterprise go through

How did you manage the crisis? Determine the tools and strategies used to
Give details manage the crisis.

III- Impact of the How did covid-19 impact the Determine the impact of covid-19 on the
Covid-19 on the microenterprise revenue ? enterprise financial performance
performance How did covid-19 influence the Determine the impact of covid-19 on the
microenterprise profit? enterprise financial performance
Did the crisis of covid-19 force the Determine the impact of covid-19 on the
microenterprise to fire any enterprise organizational performance
employees?
Did covid-19 impact the Determine the impact of covid-19 on the
participation of employees? enterprise social performance

Did covid-19 influence the Determine the impact of covid-19 on the

turnover intention of employees? enterprise social performance

34
 IV- Impact of the Did covid-19 make it harder for Determine if covid-19 negatively impacted
Covid-19 on the business your enterprise to operate the business continuity on the
continuity normally? microenterprise

Did covid-19 make it easier for Determine if covid-19 positively impacted

your business to continue? the business continuity on the
microenterprise

V- Covid-19 and Did covid-19 create more Determine if covid-19 presented more
opportunities opportunities than threats? opportunities in the market.

VI- Management Crisis Did your microenterprise change Know if the microenterprise change any
any rules to deal with the covid-19 rules amid the covid-19 crisis
crisis?

Did your microenterprise apply Determine the crisis management strategies

any crisis management strategies? of the microenterprise

II-3.2. Sample of population

Qualitative surveys use small samples or a number. We interviewed a total of 15 interviewees:

Table 4: Sample of population

Interview Interview
Interview Age Position Tasks Company
duration Date
Organize posts, get books to sell,
15
I1 20 Owner keep up with DMs, organize with the Booksbyaya 10/12/2021
minutes
delivery company
Organize product placement in the
Son of 15
I2 21 shop, assist with retailers, sell, Ideal 10/12/2021
owner minutes
organize the financings
Coordinate with retailers, place the
“Al Hilal 13
I3 45 Owner various products in the shop, sell the 10/12/2021
Supermarket” minutes
products
Organize the clothes in the shop,
“Arnaout
I4 35 Owner communicate well with customers to 11/12/2021
shop”
sell clothes

35
 Take customers order, give them to
15
I5 24 Owner the kitchen, give customers food, “Laqmashat” 11/12/2021
minutes
organize the financing
Acquire the items from retailers,
take pictures, post on social media, Online 12
I6 25 Founder 11/12/2021
take customers ‘orders, coordinate Supermarket minutes
with the delivery company
Coordinate with teachers, check the “Pro-
10
I7 25 Founder teaching material presented by the education 11/12/2021
minutes
teachers, deal with the financing Center”
Buy clothes, organize the shop’s “Triangle 15
I8 40 Owner 13/12/2021
stock, deal with the finances clothes shop” minutes
Prepare the products from scratch,
take good pictures for the website
“All 13
I9 25 Founder and socials, keep up with orders, 13/12/2021
Naturals” minutes
coordinate with the delivery
company
Buy the materials for the shop,
15
I 10 50 Owner coordinate with retailers, serve Optic shop 13/12/2021
minutes
customers, check the financing
Get the meat and make sure it’s of
god quality, prepare the various food “Tabikh
16
I11 49 Owner products and items, coordinate and Butchery 14/12/2021
minutes
serve customers, deal with the shop”
finances”
Get the products, make sure they’re
original, place them in the store, “Makeup 13
I12 38 Owner 14/12/2021
serve customers and make sure the store” minutes
finances
Prepare the chocolate, take pictures
for the socials, take customers’ “Chocolat 15
I13 28 Founder 14/12/2021
orders and prepare them, coordinate Bar” minutes
with the delivery company
Get the right products, make sure the
“Chez 14
I14 46 Founder employees are doing a good job, deal 15/12/2021
Dania” minutes
with the finances, organize the store
Get the right products, make sure the
“Lara’s 15
I15 37 Owner customers and employees are 15/12/2021
nails” minutes
satisfied, deal with the finances

36
II.3.3. Presentation of microenterprise

We interviewed 15 microenterprises located in North Lebanon. The following is the

presentation of each one.

1. Booksbyaya: Booksbyaya is a bookshop that sells used original books as well as new
copies, bookmarks, stickers, pins and tote bags. It started in September 2021 and they
operate online through an Instagram account and WhatsApp business from North
Lebanon.
2. Ideal: Ideal is a chocolate shop located in Zehrieh, Tripoli in Lebanon. The store first
opened back in 2000. They sell everything chocolate related such as various types of
chocolate, gummies, nougat, etc. They also do customized chocolate and stands for events
upon request such as engagement, wedding, baby birth, etc.
3. Al Hilal Supermarket: Al Hilal Supermarket is a supermarket based in Azmi, Lebanon.
It first opened in 2016. They sell chips, and snacks as well as houses’ necessities such as
rice, tea, and detergents.
4. Arnaout shop: Arnaout shop is a women clothing shop located in Al Tall, Tripoli in
Lebanon. It started in 2010 and they sell women’s clothing (pants, sweatpants, jeans, t-
shirts, sweaters, sets, all sorts of women clothing).
5. Laqmashat: Laqmashat is an open-door garden restaurant. The family started in in their
villa’s garden in Rashkidah, Lebanon in 2018. There’s multiple places to sit under the
trees on pillows and chairs, all related to nature. They also serve homemade food from the
villa’s kitchen.
6. Online Supermarket: Is it an online supermarket, started in 2017, and operating through
Instagram from North Lebanon, Tripoli. They mainly sell snacks such as chips, chocolate,
marshmallows, gums, etc. and everything get delivered to customers through a delivery
company.
7. Pro-education Center: Pro-education is an education teaching center located in Koura,
Lebanon. They first started in 2019 and employ teachers who teach students their school’s
material as well as intensive courses if needed, depending on the student. Their service is
mainly tutoring young children.
8. Triangle shop: Triangle shop is a male clothes shop located in Zehrieh, Lebanon. They
first opened the shop back in 2015. They sell men clothing only (t-shirts, sweaters,
hoodies, jeans, etc.).

37
9. All Naturals: All naturals is a skincare shop that was started in 2019.They are online
based and operate online through their Instagram and website from North Lebanon. They
make skincare products from scratch from organic materials. They sell eye serums, lash
serums, moisturizers, soaps, etc.
10. Optic shop: Optic shop is a glasses shop that opened in 2015 and is located in Tall
Lebanon. They sell prescription glasses as well as contact lenses (colored or not), and sun
glasses.
11. Tabikh Butchery shop: Tabikh shop is a butchery located in Zehrieh, Lebanon that was
started in 2000. They sell all sorts of meat as well as some chicken items (escalope, crispy,
nuggets).
12. Beauty makeup store: It is a makeup store that first opened in 2016 located in Abu
Samra, Lebanon. They sell various makeup products (blush, eyeshadow palettes, beauty
blenders, etc.).
13. Chocolate Bar: Chocolate Bar is an online chocolate shop. The first started in 2018 and
operate online through their Instagram account from Tripoli. They sell customized
chocolate upon the customer’s requests as well as chocolate boxes.
14. Chez Dania: Chez Dania is a hairdresser located in Abu Samra that first opened in 2018.
They offer all sort of hairstyling services such as haircuts, blow-dry, hair coloring, hair
treatment, hairstyles etc.
15. Lara’s nails: Lara’s nails is a nail care center located in Nakabet al atiba that was first
started in 2016. They do nails designs, also manicure and pedicure, nail treatment, gel-ish,
acrylics, etc.

II-4. Data Analysis: Content Analysis

To cover and organize the data, Miles and Huberman (2003) suggest coding all the information
collected. Coding consists of transforming raw data into meaningful formulations. Coding
consists of: dividing the data (direct observation, speech, text, images) into units of analysis,
defining categories that will accommodate them, then placing (arranging or categorizing) the
units in these categories (Grawitz, 1996).

38
1- Definition of the unit of analysis

According to Evrard et al. (2009), the unit of analysis (coding unit, or recording unit) is defined
as the element according to which the researcher proceeds to divide the speech or the text. Two
main types of analysis units can be distinguished:
 Lexical analyzes which are interested in the nature and richness of the vocabulary used
in speech or in text. In this case, it is the word that constitutes the unit of analysis.
 Thematic analyzes which adopt as unit of analysis a portion of a sentence, an entire
sentence, or a group of sentences relating to the same theme.

Indeed, thematic analyzes are adopted as a unit of analysis in this research.

2- Choice of categories

According to Evrard et al. (2009), the choice of categories represents the essential process of
content analysis. Categorization consists of: identifying the segments of text which in
themselves have a specific meaning, and creating a label or a short sentence, to name this new
category to which the unity of meaning is assigned. The same operation is carried out for the
other sense units. Other text segments are integrated into categories already "labeled" for which
the units are significant (Blais and Martineau, 2006).

In general, the different units identified are compared and then grouped into categories
according to their similarity. At the same time, the units are classified and the categories
defined, and possible relationships between categories are then identified. Within each
category, we find subcategories, including conflicting views or new perspectives.

Even if this step remains at a descriptive level, the mere act of organizing the data is already
close to analysis. It is therefore important to focus on the presentation of data to promote the
emergence of conclusions. (Evrard, Pras and Roux, 2009). Once the coding is finished, it will
be necessary to create a coding grid.

Langer (2001), uses content analysis of written or recorded documents drawn from participants'
personal expressions, behavioral observations and observer's briefing.

The aim of this section is to present the research problematic, the approach to be used; the
qualitative approach, the interview questions, and finally, to determine the categories of the
data in order to analyze them.

39
This section develops our research methodology. In this chapter was first listed the importance
of microenterprises in Lebanon then developed the research approach mentioning the analysis
approach type and approaches used to answer the study’s question which is “What is the impact
of the pandemic of COVID-19 on business continuity of microenterprises in the North of
Lebanon?”. This section also included the research instrument within which the target
population and sample design and selections were presented, as well as the data collection. In
addition, the statistical analysis was developed which included descriptive analysis, correlation
analysis, reliability analysis, reliability and validity and multiple regression analysis.

40
 Chapter IV
Results and Discussion

The purpose of this chapter is to present and discuss the results of this research. This chapter
is divided into two sections. The first section presents the different categories of this research
results whereas the second section discusses the obtained results.

Section I: Presentation of categories

After conducting multiple interviews with owners of multiple enterprises, we obtained various
results that will be presented in this section and divided into multiple categories.

I-1. Crisis faced by the microenterprises

The owners of the micro-enterprises interviewed, shared that they’ve been affected by the
pandemic of covid-19 on one hand, and the Lebanese economic and financial crisis on the other
hand. The economic crisis that hit Lebanon lately is one of the most severe financial crisis
world-wide. The value of the local currency drops on a daily basis in comparison with the value
of the dollar. This devaluation of the local currency caused an immediate and severe increase
in products’ and services’ prices, including basic necessities. This inflation significantly
affected the micro-enterprises in Lebanon.

I-1.1. Pandemic of Covid-19 (14/15)

The majority of the interviewed owners of the micro-enterprises said that they were indeed
affected by the worldwide pandemic of Covid-19. When asked what crisis their
microenterprises went through, they answered with the following: “Mainly the covid-19
crisis” (I1), “If we want to list all crisis, we wouldn’t finish this interview until tomorrow...
The two recent ones are the pandemic” (I2), “covid-19 pandemic" (I3), “the most severe ones
are the pandemic" (I4), “pandemic of covid-19" (I5), "the covid pandemic” (I6), “covid” (I7),
"pandemic of corona" (I8), "the crisis of corona" (I9), "the covid-19 pandemic" (I10), "Well

41
“you know the covid-19 pandemic obviously" (I12), "the pandemic of covid-19" (I13), "covid-
19" (I14), "the pandemic of covid-19"(I15).

I-1.2. Lebanon's economic crisis (15/15)

All interviewed owners of micro-enterprises confirmed that their business was influenced by
the Lebanese economic crisis. When asked what crisis their microenterprises went through,
they answered with the following: “and the Lebanese economic crisis” (I1), "...and the
economic crisis” (I2), "the financial Lebanese decline and the increased and unstable dollar
rate” (I3), “...and the economic crisis” (I4), "the Lebanese economic crisis” (I5), "the prices
increasing because of the economic crisis" (I6), "the Lebanese economic crisis" (I7), " the
financial crisis" (I8), "also the economic crisis that Lebanon is still facing " (I9), "...and what's
worse is the economic crisis" (I10), "among all the years that we've been running, the current
economic crisis was the biggest and hardest hit that our business had to face" (I11), "hm. the
protests, most importantly the economic crisis" (I12), "the economic crisis" (I13), "the
economic crisis obviously which worsened the crisis of covid-19" (I14), "...and the financial
crisis that hit Lebanon relatively around the same time" (I15).

Pandemic of Covid-
19
Crisis faced by the
microenterprise
Lebanese economic
crisis

42
I-2. Impact of the Covid-19 on the performance

Based on the interviewed owners of the micro-enterprises, the following will develop how the
pandemic of covid-19 impacted the microenterprises profit as well as how it impacted the
human resources.

Impact of the Covid-19 on

performance

Impact on microenterpises Impact on human

profit resources

I-2.1. Impact of the Covid-19 on the microenterprise profit

The impact of Covid-19 on the microenterprises’ profit varied depending on the

microenterprises and the activities it presents.

 Increased profit (10/15)

The majority of the interviewed owners of micro-enterprises in Lebanon confirmed that the
pandemic actually contributed to increasing their profit. Most microenterprises claimed that
the pandemic lead to significant changes in consumers’ demands.

Some owners claimed that the change on consumers’ demands was due to the worries
stimulated by the spread of covid-19 and the enforced regulations. For example, when the
pandemic first started and it was announced that there would be a lockdown in the entire
country, most consumers headed to the supermarkets and bought a lot of products, in big

43
quantity which is not usual. This itself lead to an increase in supermarkets’ revenue as (I11)
stated "It increased at first because everyone started panic buying and buying big amounts to
store as they were afraid of quarantine. A lot of people would bulk buy and buy for two months
at time".

Moreover, some microenterprises claimed that the increase in profit was because of the change
in the consumers’ interests due to staying at home and quarantining. For example, people were
more interested in reading which increased bookshops ’profit as (I1) stated “more people were
staying home and looking for other ways to entertain themselves so they’d buy books. This
increased our revenue”. Same case is applicable for skin care products as we noticed an
obvious increase in skincare demand in the pandemic. For instance, (I9) stated that "The
revenue increased as people were looking to do something in quarantining and skin care was
a big hit".

Other owners claimed that the increase in their profit was due to the negative consequences of
the pandemic. For example, in case of educational centers, their profit increased because most
students were unable to adapt to the sudden shift to virtual learning. (I7) stated that “Parents
were looking for educational centers to help out their children". Moreover, as people were
spending most times using electronics as everything shifted online, this caused damage or
tiresome to people’s eyes so they were seeking glasses more than before. (I10) stated that they
“…had multiple people come check their eyes, buy prescription glasses or even up blue light
glasses”.

However, some associated the increase in their profit due to them making their prices as
affordable as possible. (I6) stated that "We were making good revenue considering we were
trying to make our prices as affordable as possible".

 Decreased profit (5/15)

However, some owners of micro-enterprises in Lebanon stated that the pandemic caused a
decrease in their profit. Some claimed that this decrease was the loss of interest of consumers
in their products because they are not a necessity such as clothes and makeup. (I8) stated that
"Our revenue decreased because in the middle of a global pandemic and a national financial
crisis, buying clothes wasn't people's main priority” and (I15) stated that "It decreased because
people weren't viewing prepping the nails as a necessity anymore. It was considered more of
a luxury so not a lot of people were coming in to do their nails".

44
 Impact of Covid-19 on microenterprises’ profit

Increase in Decreased in
profit profit

Change in Loss of interest

demands due to in certain
worries products

Change in Change in
interests priorities

Affordable
prices

Negative
consequences of
the pandemic

I-2.2. Impact of Covid-19 on human resources

The impact of Covid-19 on the microenterprises’ human resources also varied depending on
the microenterprises and the activities it presents. Each enterprise took the measure it saw fit.

 Firing employee’s due pandemic combined with economic crisis (3/15)

Some enterprises were forced to fire employees due to the effect of the pandemic coupled
with the severe Lebanese economic crisis. They stated: “yes, we fired two employees as we
were no longer able to afford their salaries” (I10), “yes, one employee was fired because it
was hard to pay them well” (I12).

45
 Less motivation (5/15)

When it came to the impact of the pandemic on employee motivation, some stated that the
pandemic negatively affected their employees’ motivation and contributed in its decrease.
They stated: “yeah… employees weren’t as motivated or thrilled as there wasn’t that many
people anyway that were coming in the shop” (I2), "no one was as motivated… people were
coming to work just to work" (I3) “yes... employees were less and less motivated due to the
general environment and lack of customers and work” (I4), "no one was motivated to work…
everyone felt like they were struggling and work was just an obligation" (I8), "there wasn't an
uplifting environment to work… everything was just going from bad to worse, there was no
motivation" (I11), "their motivation definitely decreased. They were also scared for the safety
of themselves and their families especially when the corona cases started skyrocketing"(I15).

 Taking initiative lesser than usual (4/15)

Some of the interviewed owners stated that some employees were taking less initiative than
usual. They stated: “yes, as we shifted online the teachers weren't enjoying teaching like before
because it was something they were not used to" (I7), "no one was working with enthusiasm or
enjoying" (I10), "no one was enjoying work among the country's conditions and the pandemic
itself" (I12), “not as thrilled as before, definitely lacking energy and passion for the work. No
one to blame though, between the pandemic and the economic crisis, being happy with work is
hard" (I14).

 It increased the turnover intention (5/15)

Some of the interviewed owners claimed that the pandemic of coronavirus increased the
employees’ turnover intention. Some of the reasons were that the micro-enterprise was no
longer able to pay appropriate salaries, and the working conditions were stressful and
unpleasant making it hard to stay motivated. They stated: “One employee left us as they were
no longer able to afford to get to the store as the fuel prices increased and the salary wasn’t
considered enough” (I4), "definitely increased considering the working conditions"(I8),
"increased which is why we had to fire two employees to be able to keep the business running"

46
(I10), "increased as it was really hard to work when the prices were constantly changing and
becoming higher and the stress was un real" (I11), "increased as it was hard to stay motivated"
(I12), "increased considering there wasn’t a lot of work anyway, it felt really hard to
manage"(I15).

 It decreased the turnover intention (3/15) (nature of the microenterprise)

However, some interviewed owners of microenterprises in Lebanon claimed that the pandemic
of covid-19 actually decreased their turnover intention. They claimed the reasons to be that the
employees were actually enjoying working as the business was running good in comparison
with other businesses. This however depended on the nature of the microenterprises. The
education center said that it decreased because teachers were enjoying teaching. However,
others claimed that the reason was that the employees were thankful to be able to work amid a
global pandemic. "decreased, employees were thankful for a job amidst the pandemic and the
economic crisis" (I14).

 No influence (5/15)

Some interviewed owners stated that the pandemic didn’t have any significant impact on their
employees. These microenterprises were already operating online so the employees did not
feel any significant changes that could lead to modifications in their turnover intention. (I1)
stated: “no, as our business is online, there weren’t many obstacles due to covid-19.
Sometimes, due to lockdown restrictions, there would be order in delays, but besides that there
wasn’t any significant hardship due to covid”.

47
 Impact of Covid-19 on human Firing employees

Less motivation
resources

Taking initative
lesser than usual
Decreased
Turnover
intention
Increased
No influence

I-3. Impact of the Covid-19 on the business continuity

The interviewed owners of micro-enterprises each claimed that the impact of the pandemic
on business continuity was different. Some judged that the outbreak made it easier for the
business to continue, while others thought it made it harder.

 Positive impact on the business continuity (5/15)

Some interviewed owners claimed that the global outbreak made it easier for their business to
continue and grow. Some said the reason behind that was that quarantining made people change
their interests and demands. For example, (I1) stated “Definitely. I feel like the pandemic forced
people to stay at home which lead them to look for ways to entertain themselves and a lot
picked up reading as a new hobby, or went back to reading after having stopped for a while.
So it helped our business continue”.

Others thought that what gave them the advantage was their location. Some were open-door
which is exactly what people were looking for during the pandemic. “at first it was harder since
we had to shut down but it also made it easier in terms of us being a great location as an outdoor
space for hangout”. (I5).

48
In other cases, it was because the business was operating online where a lot of people were
spending their times so that opened up doors for new customers. "definitely easier as more
people were going online to look for goods they need and our entire store is online based" (I6),
"easier, we are online based. When the pandemic started more people were using their online
platforms to shop so it made it easier for our business to keep running" (I9), "for sure, being
online based the pandemic helped us massively in terms of bringing us more clients as everyone
and everything became online and everyone was inclined towards online shopping" (I13).

 Negative impact on the business continuity

Among the owners who thought the pandemic made it harder for their job to continue, some
thought it was due to shutting down and others thought it’s due to pressure and regulations.

- Shutting down (3/15)

Some interviewed owners judged that the enforced lockdown harmed their business big time
as it cut their direct relationship with the customers. They stated: “no… it made it harder for
us to operate and to continue our business. It was significantly harder for us to continue” (I4),
“harder, especially when we had to shut down as previously said” (I7), “harder like I told you
before because we had to close down our store” (I8).

- Pressure and regulations (7/15)

Others judge that the complications were because of the restrictions and regulations imposed
by the government and policymakers. They stated: “no. it made it harder as there were a lot
of pressures and regulation, everyone was lost and we had to keep up with the changes and
demands” (I3), "no it didn’t' make it any easier at all, as previously mentioned" (I10), "as we
already said it was really hard for us to operate normally and covid made it more difficult to
do so" (I11), "no. We didn't make the shift online so covid didn’t help us" (I12), "as previously
noted, definitely made it more challenging" (I14), "no, it made it harder" (I15).

49
 Change of interest
Impact of Covid-19 on
business continuity Positive Wider audience

More consumers
online

Shutting down
Negative
Pressure and
regulations

I-4. Covid-19 and opportunities

Interviewed owners of micro-enterprises in Lebanon didn’t think that the pandemic only
brought negatives, some thought that it brought opportunities such as wider audience and new
customers, and a change of interest in priorities and therefore the products they needed to get.

 Reaching a wider audience and new customers (4/15)

Some owners thought that the pandemic of covid-19 opened up doors for them to reach a bigger
audience than usual and reach more customers. They judged that reason for that was due to the
shift online as more people were spending time on the internet and therefore more people had
access to their shops. They stated: “There were significant threats but we also had to shift to
online presence and delivery, we employed someone who knew how to manage our social
media account and we did reach a wider audience. So I guess this is more opportunities, still
limited” (I4), “Definitely brought us more opportunities as everyone was online. People didn't
usually buy their snacks and goods online but covid-19 changed the whole scenario and most
people were shopping online" (I6), “more opportunities, everything shifting online brought us
new customers and therefore more sales" (I9), “more opportunities, the pandemic helped our

50
business to get this much attention otherwise people wouldn't really buy online. At least, not
that many people” (I13).

 Changing of priorities and interests leading to increase demands on certain products

(7/15)

However, others judged that the reason for the new opportunities was actually the change of
consumer’s priorities and interests because of quarantine. For some, consumers were interested
in their products more than usual. “More opportunities, for sure. I think if it weren’t for covid
we wouldn’t have seen that many people get back into reading and book” (I1) “It did bring us
more customers as I already said people were looking for places outdoors to hang out” (I5),
"it did create more opportunities after the lockdown period was over, as a lot of students
weren't getting accustomed to the online learning so they were seeking centers who were
teaching in person" (I7).

Others judged that consumers were more interested in certain products which lead to an
increase in sales of these products. “In the middle of the pandemic, people’s priorities shifted,
they were no longer that interested in buying lots of chocolate for events, events were obviously
not that frequent during the pandemic, and if there was an event, the quantity of people wasn’t
as significant as it used to be. However, more people were interested in gummies and
marshmallows. So it was a loss from one side and a gain from the other” (I2), “no new
opportunities but it increased the demand on certain products” (I3).

51
 Covid-19 and opportunities
Wider audience and new Everything and everyone
customers shifted to online presence

Increased interest in
certain products
Change in interest and
priorities
Prioritizing certain
products over others

I-5. Management Crisis

As all interviewed owners of micro-enterprises confirmed that they faced either the Covid-19
crisis, or the Lebanese economic crisis, or both, they all had to take a certain set of action to
deal with either or both crises.

I-5.1. Actions used to face the economic crisis

Due to the severe economic crisis that hit Lebanon, and had major impact on the micro-
enterprises, the interviewed owners stated that they had to take the following actions to ensure
the survival of their business.

 Increasing the prices in order to afford the costs (2/15)

In order to keep their business running, some owners had to increase the prices of their products
to be able to continue to pay the costs while making revenue. They stated: “considering we're
an educational center, when the pandemic first started just like schools we shifted to online
teaching for a while… but afterwards we got back to teaching in the center and we had to
increase the prices considering everything was costing us more than usual because of the
inflation. We were still more affordable than other centers though because we took into

52
consideration how hard it is for the parents to also pay" (I7), "we had no choice but to increase
our prices to be able to still operate. Everything was costing us way more than pre-pandemic,
like rent and electricity bills and even the items were costing much more." (I8).

 Making prices more affordable in order to keep and gain customers (5/15)

However, others had to make their prices affordable in order to keep their existing customers,
gain new one and keep and advantage edge in the market. They stated: “To be honest, the
covid-19 pandemic didn’t create major problems for us, we were already operating online and
through delivery so there wasn’t any managing needed for that. However, with the economic
crisis, we faced problems mainly with the delivery prices as they were increasing and
sometimes would cost more than the products. We had to pay part of the delivery fee ourselves
for a while and include it in the overall price not to lose customers" (I1), "As of the economic
crisis, we tried to keep our prices as affordable as possible without losing money” (I2).

 Reduction of the working hours (1/15)

Some owners had to reduce their working hours in order to save cost as their revenue was
reduced due to the economic crisis while the price of rent and electricity increased. (I12) stated
that “Well because of the inflation and the increase in electricity bill we lessened the working
hours. We didn't have another choice because there wasn't electricity all day so we had to open
less" (I12).

 Firing employees (1/15)

Some owners had to fire employees as they were no longer able to pay their wages and
compensation. (I10) stated that “We sadly had to fire employees. We were no longer able to
afford having multiple employees so we had to lay off two employees. With the continuous
increase in prices, we couldn't pay our employees a suitable salary so they can afford a good
and decent living".

53
 Making offers (2/15)

In order to keep customers and gain new ones, some owners had to make offers to encourage
consumers to purchase their products. They stated: “we tried to make offers and promotions to
encourage people to buy these products. We portrayed the products as a way to have fun with
family while also taking care of your face while quarantining" (I9), "We made offers to
encourage people to buy our products during the pandemic." (I13).

 Getting less products (3/15)

Some owners had to limit the amount and variety of products they were getting in order to
manage the severe hit of the economic crisis. They stated: "we had to cut down on the products
that are very expensive” (I3), “we were importing less clothes as people were less interested
in buying clothes, especially that with the economic crisis, everyone found the prices really
high” (I4), "Well at first we had to increase our prices. Meat is imported so with the inflation
and the continuous increase in the dollar rate, most people could no longer afford certain types
of meat so we were importing only the one that is affordable and people are looking for or else
we had to throw away the food. Not getting it in the first place was the best choice" (I11).

I-5.2. Actions took to face the pandemic

As a result of the pandemic, the interviewed owners had to take the following set of actions to
try and contain the spread of the virus while keeping their business running.
 Closing due to pandemic forced rules (10/15)

Microenterprises followed the enforced regulations of lockdown and closing set by the
government. They had to close their shop until further notice. Some were affected by this rule.
They state: "yes, we had to close down for a while during the beginning and it was hard for us
to get used to teaching virtually" (I7), “yes since we had to close our shop multiple times
because of the covid restrictions"(I8).

However, others didn’t get affected much because they either opted for delivery and online
presence “Sometimes, with lockdown measures enforced… so we had to resort to delivery
services” (I3), or it was due to the out-door nature of their business which was actually needed

54
during the pandemic “The precautions didn’t affect us as the garden is outdoor and the places
were spaced. Just the quarantining process was a bit hard as we had to close down for a while"
(I5).

 Sanitary precautions (wearing Masks, sanitizing, social distancing etc.) (3/15)

Some micro-enterprises enforced sanitary regulations upon their customers and employee like
wearing masks, sanitizing and social distancing. They stated: "When we were able to open our
shop, we required people to wear masks before entering our store, we didn’t let a lot of people
enter at the same time, we social distanced.” (I2), “We also made sure to comfort the customers
that everything was sanitized and well cleaned and that the delivery driver was also wearing
mask and sanitizing"(I13), "when we were allowed to work we made sure everyone was
wearing masks"(I14).

 Shifted to online presence (5/15)

Some micro-enterprises shifted to online presence, when originally they used to operate in real
life and not virtually. “We created an Instagram account and we operated online… we had to
keep our prices very reasonable and affordable despite the continuously increasing $ rates”
(I4), "We did teach virtually for a period of time in the beginning of covid in order not to lose
our students and keep the business going while we were in lockdown" (I7).

However, others kept their businesses in-person but used this as an opportunity to strengthen
their position online to gain attention for the virtual wave. “we just strengthened our online
presence and worked on marketing our products since it was more possible to reach
clients"(I6), "we reinforced our social media marketing in order to reach more and more
customers as more people were online"(I13), "we couldn’t offer our services online but we
started posting more on our Instagram account" (I15).

 Advertised certain products (1/15)

Some focused on advertising certain products that they knew consumers were looking for
because of quarantining. “no exact strategy but we did tell most people who came to our store
about the blue light glasses to increase our sale” (I10)

55
 Advertised the sanitary precautions (1/15)

Others advertised the sanitary precautions they were following to conceal people’s worries
during the pandemic. “we made it clear our social media that all our products were sanitized
and clean and that our delivery was wearing a mask during the entire delivery process” (I9).

Actions made to face the crisis

Actions taken to face the economic crisis

• Increase in prices
• Making prices as affordable as possible
• Reduction of working hours
• Firing employees
• Making offers
• Getting less products

Actions taken to face the pandemic

• Closing down due to the enforced rules of the pandemic
• Enforcing sanitary precautions (social distancing, masks,
sanitizing...)
• Shifting to online presence
• Advertising certain products
• Advertising the sanitary process

Conclusion of Section I
This section presented the results of the conducted interviews with 15 owners of micro-
enterprises in North Lebanon. These results showed that the microenterprises were affected by
the pandemic of Covid-19 as well as by the Lebanese economic crisis. All interviewed
enterprises took certain measures to deal with these crises. However, depending on the nature
of the micro-enterprise, the covid-19 pandemic either had a positive or negative impact. In the
following section, we’ll further discuss these results and induce propositions based on the
results’ analysis.

56
Section II: Research Results
This section discusses all obtained results of the interviews with 15 owners of micro-enterprises
in Lebanon. The interviews were carried out to study the impact of covid-19 on the business
continuity of micro-enterprises in Lebanon. Based om the previous results, we will able to
propose a series of propositions.

II-1. Covid-19 and Micro-Enterprises’ Profit

Based on our obtained results, 10 out of 15 owners stated that the pandemic helped increase
their profit. Some claimed that the increase in their profit was due to the changes in consumers’
needs and interests due to quarantine (case of bookshop and education center). Others stated
that the increasing of the profit was due to the worries that the pandemic caused as more people
were panic buying (case of supermarkets).

Moreover, 5 out of 10 microenterprises owners stated that the pandemic contributed to the
decrease of their profit as it shifted people’s priorities. Consumers were no longer viewing
specific services as a priority amid the pandemic (case of nails spa and makeup stores).

Therefore, we can state that the pandemic of covid-19 has an important influence of the micro-
enterprises profit. In our case, the covid-19 tends to increase the profit. In fact, the increasing
or decreasing of the profit depend on the nature of the activity. The increasing is noted in the
education field, as well as bookshops and supermarkets whereas the decreasing is remarked in
the field of nail care and makeup store.

(Weforum, 2020) stated that the pandemic caused catastrophic losses to businesses meaning it
significantly decreased our profit. However, our obtained results showed that the majority of
the microenterprises’ profit increased.

Therefore, we can conclude the following proposition is:

P1: The pandemic of Covid-19 influenced the micro-enterprises profit. The increasing or
the decreasing depend on the nature of the activity of the organization.

57
II-2. Covid-19 and human resources

Based on our obtained results, 5 out of 15 interviewed owners stated that employees were less
motivated, and 4 out of 15 stated that employees were taking less initiative. Moreover, 5 out
of 15 stated that that pandemic had increased the employees’ turnover intention and only 5 out
of 15 thought that the pandemic didn’t affect the employees’ motivation. Therefore, we can
claim that the pandemic negatively affected employee performance in the micro-enterprise.

This is in accordance with previous literature as (Weforum, 2020) stated that the pandemic
imposed difficulties on businesses which lead to a direct negative impact on employee
motivation. This lead to demotivated and dishonest work. Moreover, (Gern, 2020) stated that
the pandemic increased turnover intention implying that due to the hard working conditions,
fluctuations in salaries and pandemic restrictions employees were more inclined towards
leaving their jobs.

Therefore, we can conclude the following hypothesis:

P2: The pandemic of Covid-19 negatively affected employee performance (less

motivation, taking less initiative, etc.) in the micro-enterprises.

II-3. Covid-19 and business continuity

Based on our results, 10 out of 15 owners stated that the pandemic made it harder for the micro-
enterprises to operate. 3 of which claimed it was harder because they had to shut down due to
the lockdown restrictions. 7 of which thought it was harder because of the hard restrictions
imposed by policy makers such as restricted time opening.
However, 5 out of 15 stated that the pandemic made it easier for the microenterprise to continue
as it changed consumers’ interests and demands. Therefore, the pandemic of covid-19
negatively affected the business continuity of some micro-enterprises and positively affected
the business continuity of others.

Moreover, previous literature by (Gern, 2020) showed that the pandemic of Covid-19
negatively affected the business continuity to most micro-enterprises. This is partially in
accordance with our results.

58
Therefore, we can conclude the following proposition:

P3: The pandemic of Covid-19 affected business continuity of micro-enterprises. The

positive or negative impact of covid-19 on business continuity depends on the activities
and services presented by the microenterprise.

II-4. Covid-19 and Opportunities

The pandemic of covid-19 contributed in creating more opportunities for the micro-enterprises.
Based on our obtained results, 4 out of 15 interviewed owners, stated that the pandemic opened
up the doors for more customers as they shifted online. Some micro-enterprises were already
virtually based, so the shift of everyone online boosted their business. Others, that run their
business in-real life, were able to reach a wider audience through the internet.

Moreover, 7 out 15 interviewed owners stated that the pandemic shifted people’s interested, so
more consumers were interested in the type of products and services they offer. Therefore, we
can state that the pandemic of Covid-19 contributed in creating new opportunities for the
micro-enterprises depending on the microenterprises’ nature of activities.

Furthermore, (Papadopoulos, Baltas, & Balta, 2020) stated that the pandemic of covid-19 had
damaging effects and didn’t create more opportunities for enterprises. This is in disagreement
with our findings.

Therefore, we can conclude the following proposition:

P4: The pandemic of Covid-19 had an influence on microenterprises opportunities. The

increase and decrease of opportunities largely depends on the microenterprises’ nature
of activities.

II-5. Crisis Management and type of strategies

All interviewed microenterprises had to take certain actions to deal with both the pandemic
and the financial Lebanese crisis. Some enterprises increased their prices, others tried to make
their prices as affordable as possible, almost all shut down during the lockdown. Moreover,
some actions that were taken were sanitizing and enforcing sanitary rules.

This indicates that all enterprises had to implement certain strategies in order to manage the
crises that they were facing. For example, most applied the communication crisis management

59
strategy. Most micro-enterprises shifted to online presence, if the nature of their activity
allowed them to, and communicated with their customers. The micro-enterprises that were
unable to offer their services virtually, also shifted online so they can reach their consumers.

Moreover, most microenterprises adopted the transparency strategy. They were transparent
about the adoption of the sanitary precautions as well as about them trying to keep their prices
despite the obvious economic hardships.

Furthermore, most micro-enterprises changed the works’ rules like the way to conduct their
work. Some increased their prices, others shifted to virtual presence, some advertised certain
products to meet consumers’ needs, and others even took the opportunity to closing down to
renovate. Thus, we can conclude the following proposition.

P5: Micro-enterprises adopted certain crisis management strategies and enforced new
rules to deal with the pandemic.

II-6. Link with the economic crisis

As previously stated, the crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic had significant impact on the
microenterprises in Lebanon. However, these microenterprises simultaneously faced the
pandemic of Covid-19 as well as the economic crisis. The actions that they took were to contain
both the pandemic and the financial crisis.

For example, some microenterprises had to increase their prices due to the severe economic
inflation but also due to the unstable economy caused by the pandemic. Some microenterprises
had to fire employees but it also was due to both the economic and financial crisis.

Therefore, the impact of the Lebanese economic crisis was significant in a way that the actions
took and changes made by the microenterprises were interconnected and related.

This section analyzed the obtained results presented in the first section of this chapter. This
analysis, alongside the appropriate literature, lead us to conclude a set of propositions and to
conclude the impact of covid-19 as well as the economic crisis on the micro-enterprises in
North Lebanon. The impact largely depended on the nature of activities presented by the
microenterprises.

60
Conclusion of the chapter

This chapter presented the results collected from interviewing 15 owners of micro-enterprises
located in North-Lebanon in the first section, divided onto categories. In the second section,
these results were analyzed and propositions were concluded implying the impact of covid-19
and the economic crisis on micro-enterprises business continuity. This chapter showed that
the impact of covid-19 can’t be differentiated from the impact of the economic crisis.
Furthermore, the impact of both crises differed based on the microenterprises and the type of
activities and services presented by the microenterprise.

61
 Chapter V
Conclusion & Recommendations
Based on all previously presented literature works, we conclude that the pandemic of covid-19
was, in fact, a crisis that put many micro-enterprises at risk. Especially those in under-
developed areas due to the lack of opportunities. Previous academics showed that, in order for
the business to survive, they need to adopt crisis management strategies or else the business is
going to fail and it will save catastrophic consequences. Previous works also showed that there
was not enough research done on the effect of crisis on business continuity of micro-
enterprises. Therefore, in this research, our main aim was to study the impact of the pandemic
of covid-19 on business continuity of micro-enterprises in Lebanon.

Our research questions evolved according to the successive stages of our work:

1. Did the covid-19 pandemic impact business continuity of microenterprises in the North
of Lebanon?

2. Did the covid-19 pandemic impact business performance of microenterprises in the

North of Lebanon?

3. How did the microenterprises deal with covid-19 pandemic in the North of Lebanon?

In order to answer the research central question, we first exposed the context of crisis
management then the impact of Covid-19 on microenterprises. To develop the literature, we
first presented, in the first section, the definition of crisis, its various types and stages as well
as the definition for crisis management and action plan and tools applied to manage a crisis. In
the second section, we explored the impact of covid-19 on business continuity by presenting
the covid-19 crisis, microenterprises as well as the performance of microenterprises.

We opted for an inductive methodology. This approach is recommended when a scarce

literature places the researcher in a logic of discovery. Indeed, our approach started with data
from the field to move towards a conceptualization of the phenomenon studied.

We have adopted a qualitative approach. In total we conducted 15 semi-structured interviews

with owners of different micro-enterprises in Lebanon. All microenterprises were operating
from North-Lebanon either online or in store. They all were impacted by the pandemic of

62
covid-19 as well as the financial Lebanese crisis. The analysis of our semi- directive interviews
allows us to bring out some proposals:

 P1: The pandemic of Covid-19 influenced the micro-enterprises profit. The increasing or
the decreasing depend on the nature of the activity of the organization.
 P2: The pandemic of Covid-19 negatively affected employee performance in the micro-
enterprises.
 P3: The pandemic of Covid-19 affected business continuity of micro-enterprises. The
positive or negative impact of covid-19 on business continuity depends on the activities
and services presented by the microenterprise.
 P4: The pandemic of Covid-19 had an influence on microenterprises opportunities. The
increase and decrease of opportunities largely depends on the microenterprises’ nature of
activities.
 P5: Micro-enterprises adopted certain crisis management strategies and enforced new rules
to deal with the pandemic.

This research provided some answers to the research objectives established in the introduction.
Moreover, the research results showed us that the pandemic did, indeed, affect micro-
enterprises on various levels and with different severity based on the micro-enterprises
activities. For some, the pandemic had positive impact as it contributed in increasing the micro-
enterprises profit and contributed to creating more opportunities. For others, it had an opposite
impact and negatively affected the employee performance and the business continuity of the
microenterprises.

All in all, the pandemic had a significant impact on enterprises. The pandemic contributed to
increasing the microenterprises profitability. As due to the pandemic, people’s interests, wants
and needs shifted which affected some enterprises positively, and others negatively. Moreover,
the pandemic provided more opportunities as the shift to virtual presence opened up the door
to new customers and a wider audience. However, despite the positives of the pandemic, it
indeed had negatives especially that it was coupled with the severe economic crisis in Lebanon.
The coronavirus outbreak alongside the Lebanese economic crisis massively affected
employees and businesses. Employees were demotivated and taking less initiative than usual
and therefore their productivity decreased. Moreover, these crises threatened business
continuity as the microenterprises were finding it hard to properly operate amid the restrictions,
regulations and constant changes in prices.

63
This research is accompanied by limits which open up so many avenues of research in a field
where a large number of investigations remain to be pursued. The first limitation lies in the
choice of a qualitative methodology. This limitation is that the data was collected through
interviews and sometimes the interpretation of the data could be inferred. Another criticism
could be linked to the reduced number of owners. This question was considered as an obstacle
to the possibility of generalizing the results. Furthermore, all interviewed micro-enterprises are
located in Lebanon. Lastly, the pandemic of covid-19 affected the micro-enterprises during the
same time that the Lebanese economic crisis hit so the effect cannot strictly be linked to the
pandemic After knowing the limits, it should be clarified whether they affect the meaning of
the results. On the contrary, they provide interesting platforms for future research. For future
research, this topic should be studied on a wider region and a larger sample. Furthermore,
future research should adopt a quantitative method as it would generate more results.

Based on the various findings and discussions, the following are recommended:

 Owners should strengthen their social media presence amid the coronavirus pandemic as
this opened up new opportunities for some microenterprises.
 Microenterprises should focus on understanding the continuously changing interests and
wants of the consumers in order to change or modify their products and services
accordingly.
 Microenterprises should try and make their prices as affordable as possible especially in
light of the current economic crisis that Lebanon is going through.
 Owners of microenterprises shouldn’t only take interest in consumers but employees as
well. Owners should create a motivating environment for employees to work at because
the more the employees are motivated, the more productive they are and the better results
the microenterprise is generating.
 Owners should also pay their employees respectable and suitable salaries alongside
compensation and bonus to decrease employee turnover intention.

64
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 Index

Categories Sub-categories Dimensions

I-1. Crisis faced by I-1.1. Pandemic of Covid-19
the microenterprise I-1.2. Lebanon’s economic crisis
I-2. Actions used to I-2.1. Actions due to the - Shut Down
face the crises pandemic of Covid-19 - Wearing Masks, sanitizing, etc.

I-2.2. Actions due to the - Increased the prices

economic crisis - Made prices more affordable
- We lessened the working hours
- Fired employees
- Made offers
- Getting less products

I-3. Impact of the I-3.1. Impact of the - Increased profit

Covid-19 on the Covid-19 on the - Decreased profit
performance microenterprise profit
I-3.2. Impact of the - Firing pandemic combined with
Covid-19 on human economic crisis
resources - Less motivation
- Taking initiative lesser than usual
- No influence
- It increased the turnover intention
- It decreased the turnover intention

I-4. Impact of the Yes, - It did make easier

Covid-19 on the
business continuity - Shutting down
- Pressure and regulations

I-5. Covid-19 and I-5.1. Reaching a wider audience and new customers
opportunities I-5.2. Changing of priorities and interests leading to increase
demands on certain products

69
I-6. Management I-6.1. Rules change by - Closing due to pandemic forced rules
crisis the microenterprises to
deal with the crisis - Enforcing social distancing and
wearing masks

I-6.2. Crisis - Shifted to online presence

management strategies - Advertised certain products
applied by the - Advertised the sanitary precautions
microenterprise

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 List of Tables
Table 1: Types of crisis .......................................................................................................... 12

Table 2: Statement of problem and research questions ..................................................... 31

Table 3: Interview Guide ...................................................................................................... 34

Table 4: Sample of population .............................................................................................. 35

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 List of figures
Figure 1: Types of Crisis ....................................................................................................... 12

Figure 2: Types of corporate crisis ....................................................................................... 13

Figure 3: Business continuity process. ................................................................................. 27

72