Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the economy of the United Arab Emirates. Indeed, SMEs represent 94% of businesses and employ 86% of the workforce. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, these businesses faced numerous challenges, including closures, financial instability, and disruptions to supply chains. A study in the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business has looked at how those SMEs addressed the issues and the role new media technologies played in how they were able to adapt and recover from the pandemic.
Bharti Pandya, Shreesha Mairaru, Asma Buhannad, and Leena Daroo of the Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, highlight the immediate impact the pandemic had and how widespread this was as well as looking at the significant longer-term consequences for many SMEs. The team explains that these businesses were forced to adjust their operations quickly in order to survive. The team showed that social media, e-commerce platforms, and other digital tools were critical in this, helping businesses shift their strategies during the crisis. Once lockdowns and social distancing measures had begun to limit traditional business practices, those technologies allowed businesses to continue reaching customers, marketing their products, and managing operations remotely.
However, although new media technologies were important in the short term, the study shows that they led to longer-term changes in SMEs. Once these digital tools were integrated into the core business functions of those companies, they became critical to sustaining competitiveness as the economy changed after the pandemic. The researchers suggest that digital adoption was not simply a sticking plaster for the pandemic times, but a necessary treatment for the ongoing health of SMEs. Indeed, they explain that the integration of digital tools into communication and customer outreach have helped sustain growth beyond the initial crisis.
Of course, some SMEs needed different digital strategies and not all were able to adapt and survive. Response depended on sector and company size, with some SMEs needing more time and resources to adopt the digital tools and others finding that there were no platforms to meet their specific needs. The team concludes that any business needs to consider which digital tools are best suited to its objectives and resources carefully, and particularly in responding to a global crisis.
Pandya, B., Mairaru, S., Buhannad, A. and Daroo, L. (2025) ‘New media technologies and small and medium enterprises: evidence from the COVID-19 period’, Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Vol. 54, No. 3, pp.403–422.