COVID-19 Business Impact Review

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic, or COVID-19, is an expeditiously developing virus advancing post-haste to all geographical regions of the world. This pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has and continues to result in negative economic and societal impacts in all aspects of human culture. However, previous studies have focused solely on the aforementioned societal implications of COVID-19 and neglecting that of the economy, specifically in regards to a business setting [3,6,7,8]. How does this impact vary among businesses, and what is the extent of negative or positive repercussions? This paper aims to address this gap by analyzing the degree of impact caused by COVID-19 on 50 various sizes and types of businesses in a small town atmosphere. A statistical analysis was performed in regards to this surveyed data, analyzing how the size and/or industry of a business plays a role in such business’ response to negative uncontrollable economic events. These graphs were further grouped and findings were summarized. The study discovered a higher negative correlation between small sized service industry businesses, compared to substantially larger positive responses from medium merchandising businesses. Moreover, a new understanding was found regarding the similarity between size and industry of businesses in regards to their impact by COVID-19. Overall, this study provides insights into which businesses are potentially more vulnerable to future unforeseen detrimental situations. The findings aid in the application of a response program to be used by businesses to further mitigate undesirable outcomes of businesses caused by negative external events.