Title: New media technologies and small and medium enterprises: evidence from the COVID-19 period

Authors: Bharti Pandya; Shreesha Mairaru; Asma Buhannad; Leena Daroo

Addresses: Dubai Women's College, Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates ' Dubai Women's College, Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates ' Dubai Women's College, Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates ' Dubai Women's College, Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Abstract: COVID-19 has disrupted the status quo affecting the sustainability and survivability of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are the backbone of UAE's economy representing 94% of companies and employing around 86% of the workforce. During COVID-19 SMEs have reinvented their strategies to recover from their unexpected and unimaginable losses and have embraced new media technologies. The heterogeneity of strategies and tactics adopted by SMEs (of UAE) needs a systematic investigation to understand how they leveraged new media to re-invent themselves to recover from the pandemic. The research aims to understand the key challenges faced by Emirati-owned SMEs to engage various stakeholders during COVID-19 and to examine the role played by new media technologies to sustain the business. This phenomenological study presents the strategies adopted by SMEs using new media technologies during COVID. The results of this research will benefit SME entrepreneurs, policymakers, business strategists, scholars, and new media providers.

Keywords: new media technologies; sustainability; strategies; challenges; COVID-19; small and medium enterprises; SMEs; new media; NMTs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2025.144230

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2025 Vol.54 No.3, pp.403 - 422

Received: 17 Dec 2022
Accepted: 25 Jan 2023
Published online: 03 Feb 2025 *

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