Small and Medium Enterprises in the Americas, Effect of Disaster Experience on Readiness Capabilities
Main Article Content
Keywords
Disaster risk reduction, Disaster experience, Small and medium-sized enterprises, Readiness
Abstract
Disaster risk reduction (DRR) is key in strengthening resilience and achievement of sustainable development. The private sector is co-responsible for DRR: it is a generator of risks, and a subject exposed to risks. There are competing narratives in the literature regarding the relationship between business’ disaster experience and DRR. The current study defined and characterized businesses in the Americas, with a particular interest in small and medium enterprises, and examined whether disaster experience predicts DRR, considering business size. Secondary data analyses were conducted using data from a previous study on private sector participation in DRR conducted in six Western Hemisphere cities (N=1162): Bogotá, Colombia; Kingston, Jamaica; Miami, USA; San José, Costa Rica; Santiago, Chile; and Vancouver, Canada. Results confirmed that business size matters – small businesses had lower levels of DRR efforts compared to medium and large businesses. Disaster experience (i.e., supply chain disruption, loss of telecommunications, power outage, and damaged facilities) predicted DRR. The findings underscore the importance of fostering, advising, and financing small and medium enterprises to proactively develop capabilities in the line of risk and emergency management, and early resumption of operations, post-disasters. Governing agencies and civil society organizations have the ability to provide this support.
Downloads
References
Asgary, A. (2016). Business Continuity and Disaster Risk Management in Business Education: Case of York University. AD-Minister, (28), 49–72. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17230/ad-minister.28.3
Asgary, A., Anjum, M. I., & Azimi, N. (2012). Disaster recovery and business continuity after the 2010 flood in Pakistan: Case of small businesses. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2, 46–56. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2012.08.001
Ayyagari, M., Beck, T., & Demirgüç-Kunt, A. (2005). Small and Medium Enterprises across the Globe: A New Database [Mimeo]. Retrieved from World Bank Group website: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DEC/Resources/84797-1114437274304/SME_globe.pdf
Ayyagari, M., Demirgüç-Kunt, A., & Beck, T. (2003). Small and Medium Enterprises across the Globe: A New Database (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. ID 636547). Retrieved from Social Science Research Network website: http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=636547
Battisti, M., & Deakins, D. (2012). Perspectives from New Zealand Small Firms: Crisis Management and the Impact of the Canterbury Earthquake. New Zealand Center for SME Research.
Berisha, G., & Pula, J.-S. (2015). Defining Small and Medium Enterprises: a critical review. Academic Journal of Business, Administration, Law and Social Sciences, 1(1), 17–28.
Calice, P. (2016, July). Assessing Implementation of the Principles for Public Credit Guarantees for SMEs A Global Survey. Retrieved from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/730551469021300941/pdf/WPS7753.pdf
Corey, C., & Deitch, E. (2011). Factors Affecting Business Recovery Immediately after Hurricane Katrina. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 19(3), 169–181. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5973.2011.00642.x
CRED. (2018). “Cred Crunch 52 - Economic Losses, Poverty And.” Cred Crunch. Brussels, Belgium: Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters - CRED, October. https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Cred%20Crunch%2052.pdf.
Dahlsrud, A. (2008). How corporate social responsibility is defined: an analysis of 37 definitions. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 15(1), 1–13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.132
DCED. (2008). Supporting Business Environment Reforms: Practical Guidance for Development Agencies. Retrieved from http://www.businessenvironment.org/dyn/be/docs/142/DonorGuidance_English.pdf.
Dynes, R., & Quarantelli, E. (1992). Behavior in Disaster and Implications for The Insurance Industry. University of Delaware - Disaster Research Center.
EC. (2016). What is an SME? [European Comission]. Retrieved September 4, 2016, from Growth - Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs website: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/business-friendly-environment/sme-definition_en
FEMA. (2016). Protecting Your Businesses [Governm
ental]. Retrieved September 3, 2016, from The National Flood Insurance Program website: http://www.fema.gov/protecting-your-businesses
FRBSF. (2018). New Data on Small Business Recovery after Natural Disasters [Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco]. Retrieved April 22, 2019, from Community Development website: https://www.frbsf.org/community-development/blog/new-data-on-small-business-recovery-after-natural-disasters/
Greene, S. (2011). Catalyzing Investment for Domestic Impact: The Impact Investing Initiative of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, 6(3), 27–34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/INOV_a_00079
Hernández Montes de Oca, P. (n/a). Past disaster damages as drivers of coping and adaptive strategies in small and medium community businesses. Retrieved from http://www.feem-project.net/belpasso_2011/files/students_papers/Montes-de-Oca.pdf
Howe, P. D. (2011). Hurricane preparedness as anticipatory adaptation: A case study of community businesses. Global Environmental Change, 21(2), 711–720. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.02.001
IEG. (2008). Financing micro, small, and medium Enterprises: An Independent Evaluation of IFC’s experience with Financial intermediaries in frontier Countries. Retrieved from Independent Evaluation Group, the International Finance Corporation.
ILO. (2011). An enabling environment for sustainable enterprises. Retrieved from http://www.ilo.int/empent/units/boosting-employment-through-small-enterprise-development/WCMS_169675/lang--en/index.htm.
Johnson, B. R., Connolly, E., & Carter, T. S. (2011). Corporate social responsibility: the role of Fortune 100 companies in domestic and international natural disasters. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 18(6), 352–369. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.253
Kok, J. de, Deijl, C., & Veldhuis-Van Essen, C. (2013). Is small still beautiful? literature review of recent empirical evidence on the contribution of SMEs to employment creation. Eschborn: GIZ.
Makerere University Business School. (2014). Constraints to small business growth: Entrepreneurship and small business enterprise growth in Uganda. Retrieved from http://www.evancarmichael.com/African-Accounts/1639/60-Constraints-to-small-business-growth-Entrepreneurship-and-Small-Business-Enterprise-Growth-in-Uganda.html
Minto-Coy, I., & Rao, L. (2016). “Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management into Management Education: Case of the Mona School of Business & Management.” AD-Minister, no. 28: 177–200. https://doi.org/10.17230/ad-minister.28.9.
Muñoz-Gómez, L. (2016). “Business Education and Creation of Awareness for Disaster Risk Management in Chile.” AD-Minister, no. 28: 201–21. https://doi.org/10.17230/ad-minister.28.10.
Murta, J., Gero, A., Kuruppu, N., & Mukheibir, P. (2012). Enhancing Adaptive Capacity of Small to Medium Enterprises. National Climate Change Research Facility, Australia.
Noth, F., & Rehbein, O. (2019). “Badly Hurt? Natural Disasters and Direct Firm Effects.” Finance Research Letters 28 (March): 254–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2018.05.009.
OECD. (2013). Financing small business: a key to economic recovery. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/financing-small-business-key-to-economic-recovery.htm
Saleem, K., Luis, S., Deng, Y., Chen, S.-C., Hristidis, V., & Li, T. (2008). Towards a business continuity information network for rapid disaster recovery. Dg.o ’08 Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Digital Government Research, 107–116. Retrieved from http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=1367832
Sarmiento, J. P. (2016). Disaster risk management in business education setting the tone. AD-Minister, (28), 7–32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17230/ad-minister.28.1
Sarmiento, J. P., Hoberman, G., Jerath, M., & Ferreira, G. (2016). “Disaster Risk Management and Business Education: The Case of Small and Medium Enterprises.” AD-Minister, no. 28 (2016): 73–90. https://doi.org/10.17230/ad-minister.28.4.
Sarmiento, J. P., Hoberman, G., Ilcheva, M., Asgary, A., Majano, A. M., Poggione, S., & Duran, L. R. (2012). Private sector and disaster risk reduction: The Cases of Bogota, Miami, Kingston, San Jose, Santiago, and Vancouver. Background Paper Prepared for the 2013 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, UNISDR, Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved from https://www.preventionweb.net/english/hyogo/gar/2013/en/bgdocs/Sarmiento%20and%20Hoberman,%202012.pdf
Sarmiento, J. P., Hoberman, G., Ilcheva, M., Asgary, A., Majano, A. M., Poggione, S., & Duran, L. R. (2015). Private sector and disaster risk reduction: The Cases of Bogota, Miami, Kingston, San Jose, Santiago, and Vancouver. INT J DISAST RISK RE, 14, 225–237. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2014.09.008
UNDP. (2013). Small Businesses: Impact of Disasters and Building Resilience. United Nations Development Programme.
United Nations. (2016). Sustainable Development: Disaster Risk Reduction. Geneva: UN. http://www.preventionweb.net/files/50683_oiewgreportenglish.pdf.
Urwin, P., Karuk, V., Buscha, F., & Siara, B. (2008). Small businesses in the UK: New perspectives on evidence and policy. Retrieved from http://www.fsb.org.uk/policy/images/fsbwestminster01%2012%20 (3).pdf
Vargas-Florez, J., Vilalta-Perdomo, E., Hingley, M., & Michel-Villarreal, R. (2019). “Microbusiness Collaboration as a Strategy to Increase Resilience in Natural Disasters: The Case of Coastal El Niño in Peru 2017.” In Handbook of Research on Urban and Humanitarian Logistics, 330–46. Advances in Logistics, Operations, and Management Science. IGI Global, http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve.aspx?doi=10.4018/978-1-5225-8160-4.
Warner, R. M. (2013). Applied statistics: from bivariate through multivariate techniques (2nd ed). Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications.
WB. (2019). “Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Finance.” The World Bank. Understanding Poverty (blog). Retrieved from The World Bank Group website: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/smefinance.
Webb, G. R., Tierney, K. J., & Dahlhamer, J. M. (2000). Businesses and Disasters: Empirical Patterns and Unanswered Questions. Natural Hazards Review, 1(2), 1–30. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1527-6988(2000)
Zhang, Y., Lindell, M., & Prater, C. (2004). Modeling and Managing the Vulnerability of Community Businesses to Environmental Disasters. Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, Texas and M University College Station, Texas.
Article Sidebar
Article Details
Juan Pablo Sarmiento, Universidad Internacional de Florida
M.D. M.Sc. University of Bordeaux; Associate Director for Research, Extreme Events Institute at Florida International University; Research Professor and Director, Disaster Risk and Resilience in the Americas (DRRA) Program; Email: jsarmien@fiu.edu, ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8192-902X
Catalina Sarmiento, University of Western Ontario
M.Sc., University of Western Ontario; Ph.D. candidate Clinical Psychology at the University of Western Ontario; Email: csarmie2@uwo.ca, ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5055-4720
Gabriela Hoberman, Florida International University
PhD, Florida International University; Assistant Director, Research Programs at Florida International University; Political Scientist; Email: ghoberma@fiu.edu, ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8790-4544
Meenakshi Jerath, Florida International University
MSc. Florida International University; Research Analyst at Florida International University; Scientific Research; Email: mjerath@fiu.edu, ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4711-1571
Vicente Sandoval, Florida International University
PhD, University College London; Postdoctoral Research Associate at Florida International University; Email: vicente.sandoval.h@gmail.com, ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8044-1567
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
a. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
b. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
c. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).