Effective business model adaptations in family SMEs in response to the COVID-19 crisis
Journal of Family Business Management
ISSN: 2043-6238
Article publication date: 27 June 2022
Issue publication date: 2 March 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The present paper aims at exploring effective business model adaptations in response to unexpected events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors test the effect of two major business model adaptations, namely changes in the value proposition and changes in the target market, on a sample of 96 family SMEs.
Findings
Results show that only changes in the value proposition had a positive and significant impact on performance, helping family SMEs to better confront COVID-19. However, this effect is reduced in the case of target market change.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate how business model adaptations in family SMEs affect performance in crisis situations.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Guest Editor Marina Dabić and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments that improved the quality of the paper. The authors also thank KPMG, Credit Suisse, MCP and Bcentric for their support in data collection. The authors are also indebted to Andrea Calabrò, Mara Brumana and to the participants of the 16th EIASM Workshop on Family Firm Management Research, the 5th PISB workshop and the EuFBC seminar series for their constructive feedback.
Citation
Brunelli, S., Gjergji, R., Lazzarotti, V., Sciascia, S. and Visconti, F. (2023), "Effective business model adaptations in family SMEs in response to the COVID-19 crisis", Journal of Family Business Management, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 101-117. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFBM-02-2022-0020
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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