Innovation as a strategy resilience during the crisis COVID-19

qualitative analysis of Argentine MSMEs

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18270/cuaderlam.v18i34.3886

Keywords:

digitalización, estrategia de resiliencia, gestión de crisis, innovaci´ón, pyme

Abstract

Innovation constitutes a strategic adaptation mechanism and represents a key factor for the organizational
resilience of companies, especially, small ones. Given the importance of innovation and resilience in firms’ survival,
this paper aims to describe the types of innovations adopted by Argentine commercial micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the face of the pandemic crisis, based on the perception of entrepreneurs and public accountants. Methodologically, a qualitative research with an exploratory-descriptive scope is developed. Sixteen semi-structured interviews are conducted (Bahía Blanca, Argentina) and a content analysis is performed on the collected data, combining deductive and inductive coding. The results reveal an acceleration of the digitalization process of MSMEs and demonstrate that platformization is transversal to the different types of innovations. That is, social media and virtual stores as forms of commercialization, shipping applications in process innovations, and electronic wallets within the relevant changes in organizational aspects. According to the findings, the innovations were less far-reaching in the smaller companies and certain characteristics of entrepreneurs acted as facilitators of the changes (entrepreneurship, youth, and free time).

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Author Biography

Florencia Pedroni, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina

Doctor in Administration Sciences from the National University of the South: Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Intern postdoctoral fellow at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), Argentina. Email: florencia.pedroni@uns.edu.ar;
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8896-4001.

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Published

2022-06-09

How to Cite

Pedroni, F. (2022). Innovation as a strategy resilience during the crisis COVID-19 : qualitative analysis of Argentine MSMEs. Cuadernos Latinoamericanos De Administración, 18(34). https://doi.org/10.18270/cuaderlam.v18i34.3886

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Vol. 18 No. 34 (2022): Cuadernos Latinoamericanos de Administración

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