Crisis Management Practices in Small- and Medium-Sized Firms

Abstract

The topic of crisis management, which is currently gaining in importance, has so far been little focused on small- and medium-sized companies. Because of this, there are currently only a few substantive results relating to this problem. Therefore, there is a considerable need for research with regard to crisis management, especially in small- and medium-sized companies. At the current status, a corresponding crisis plan has not yet found its way into all SMEs. If a corresponding strategy already exists, there are still considerable implementation barriers in many cases. Finally, as essential prerequisites for successful crisis management, employees should be comprehensively informed and involved, and plans should be tried out or tested in practice. In the present study, therefore, it was taken as an opportunity to examine the status quo of crisis management in German SMEs and to identify an understanding of the degree of implementation and the corresponding implementation difficulties. Six hundred and eighty-one companies were surveyed from September to October 2020.