The Covid-19 crisis and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Serbia: responsive strategies and significance of the government measures

Abstract

This paper investigates SMEs’ responses to the COVID-19 crisis and the significance of specific government support measures for overcoming the crisis effects. The results show that SMEs have mostly implemented retrenchment and persevering strategies, whereas innovation and exit strategies were less used, as well as that the strategy selection depends on both the severity of the COVID-19 impact on individual business segments and SME specificities. Additionally, the analysis reveals that, from the SMEs’ perspective, not all the future government measures are equally significant for recovery. Therefore, in creating an optimum measure package to support SMEs, governments must consider multiple criteria. The SMEs’ responses, as well as the significance of specific government measures, vary depending on the characteristics of SMEs and the magnitude of COVID-19 effects on specific business aspects.