Presentation at the ERC State of Small Business Britain conference 2023 at the Shard , London by Ute Stephan

1. Professor Ute Stephan, Ute.Stephan@kcl.ac.uk
ERC State of Small Business Britain Conference 2023: SME Futures
London 21 June 2023
Entrepreneurship and the Pandemic

2. ThisprojecthasreceivedfundingfromtheEuropeanUnion’sHorizon2020researchandinnovationprogrammeundertheMarieSkłodowska-CuriegrantagreementNo
793117 – Positive Entrepreneurship (PosENT). We also acknowledge funding by the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), LabEx Entreprendre
(France),theTranscampusInitiative(TUDresden-KCL),ProgramaOperativoFEDERAndalucía (Spain)andKing’sCollegeLondon.
representing ¾ of world’s GDP & 56% of its
population
Global Study on Entrepreneurship & Covid
Challenge: Survival
• 3 in 4 (73%) reported loss in trading
• 61% see existence of their business threatened
• 8 months until business runs out of money
“I have reduced income and am living off
reserves intended for facing Brexit issues.”
UK Entrepreneurs in our study
“..the stress of potentially losing not only
our business/income but that of people who
rely on us for work was colossal….It wasn’t
clear if we could maintain our business...
David Cowell,
“we are living off the saving we have been
building for retirement – this will mean I
will have to work for many years more to
replace them”

3. As their businesses suffered, so did the entrepreneurs
Stephan, U. (2018). Entrepreneurs’ mental health and well-being: A review and research agenda. Academy of Management
Perspectives, 32(3), 290-322. download
“my business… nearly
collapsed …, well-being –
horrible, … sleepless
nights, ... I gave up [the]
business …”
My own working day
quickly extended to 18
hours, though I tried
to limit it to 12 hours on
Sundays
Entrepreneurs in
our study
• Well-being underpins personal resilience,
productivity and scale-up
• Poor mental health and suicide threaten the
survival of businesses
(Stephan, 2018 for an evidence review)
44% of entrepreneurs
reported not getting
enough sleep.
The well-being of
entrepreneurs during
the pandemic was 12%
lower compared to
pre-pandemic

4. Entrepreneur
Well-Being
+
Adapting business
planning (68%)
&
Recognizing New
Business
Opportunities (39%)
Multilevel/hierarchical regression controlling for GDP, response stringency, government support to businesses, national culture; education (secondary, university),
age and gender of entrepreneur; industry sectors (5), firm age, firm size (employees), success (profit pre-Covid), scientific publication ETP
Expected Survival
of the Business
Scale-up
expectations (5yrs)
Entrepreneur Agility

5. Diverse opportunities
www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/12/24/surviving-covid-19-the-uk-corner-shop-that-came-to-the-rescue

6. Upswing in Entrepreneurs’ Societal Engagement in the
Pandemic
• 51% volunteered their
business’ services and
products
• In addition to personal
volunteering and charitable
giving by 43% and 63% of
entrepreneurs

7. Business Resilience & Agility
Pandemic triggered Trends
Towards a Resilient Economy
Our UK
and
GLOBAL
Reports
Personal Resilience:
Entrepreneur & Staff Mental Health
Frugal
digitali-
sation
Inclusive
business
models
Focus
on
‘local’

8. www.kcl.ac.uk/research/supporting-entrepreneurship-covid-19-pandemic-global-study-
entrepreneurs-resilience-well-being
Media Coverage Input into policy discussions
+ coverage in newspapers in Germany, New
Zealand, Canada, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Sweden,
Poland, Spain, Brazil…
+ appearances on national television in Bosnia &
Herzegovina, Poland, and Spain

9. Email Ute.Stephan@kcl.ac.uk
Website www.kcl.ac.uk/people/ute-stephan
Thank you!
Questions?

10. Sharon Parker
Curtin University,
Australia
Arobindu Dash
International University
of Business Agriculture
and Technology, Bangladesh
EdgardBarki
FGV EAESP,
Brazil
Janet A Boekhorst
Conrad School of
Entrepreneurship and
Business, Canada
Michael Leatherbee
Pontificia Universidad
Católica de Chile,
Chile
Jun Li
University of Essex,
UK & China
Marisleidy Alba Cabañas
Universidad Externado
de Colombia, Colombia
Francesco Rosati
Technical University
of Denmark,
Denmark & Italy
Olivier Torres
Université de
Montpellier, France
Dominika Wach
Technische Universitaet
Dresden, Germany
Sreevas Sahasranamam
University of Strathclyde,
UK & India
Toimoko Sekiguchi
Kyoto University,
Japan
Nicole Thomas
Technical University
of Denmark, Denmark
SaddamKhalid
University of Hyogo,
Japan & Pakistan
Mohsin Zahid
Neuron Solutions,
Pakistan
Amanda Williamson
University of Waikato,
New Zealand
TatianaIakovleva
University of
Stavangar, Norway
Ana Pérez-Luño
Universidad Pablo
de Olavide, Spain
Constanze Eib
Uppsala Universiteit,
Sweden
Johan Wiklund
Syracuse University,
USA
MK Ward
Curtin University,
Australia
ClaudiaBernhard-Oettel
Stockholm University,
Sweden
Jingjing (Sarah) Qu
Shanghai Institute
of Science for Science &
Fudan University, China
Adnan Efendic
School of Economics and
Business, Bosnia
and Herzegovina
Alexandre Benzari
Montpellier
Business School,
France
Marcus Salusse
São Paulo School of
Business Administration,
Brazil
Ute Stephan
King’s Business School,
King’s College London
United Kingdom
Przemysław Zbierowski
King’s Business School,
University of Economics
in Katowice, Poland
Pierre-Jean Hanard
King’s Business School,
United Kingdom
Mi Hoang Tran
Syracuse University,
USA

11. www.kcl.ac.uk/research/supporting-entrepreneurship-covid-19-pandemic-global-
study-entrepreneurs-resilience-well-being
Country reports for Germany, India, Spain, Sweden, UK, in addition to global report