COVID-19’s Implications on Sustainability and Digital Growth in Small and Medium-Sized Businesses: A Theoretical Framework

Online platforms are instruments for carrying out an enormous number of duties. Instead of being process-driven, it primarily makes possible a data-driven world. Digital platforms find widespread application in marketplaces, media outlets, information platforms, and other domains. The increasing popularity of digital platforms can be attributed to technological improvements like cutting-edge machine learning and the most popular artificial intelligence. The COVID-19 pandemic has acted as a stimulant for the meteoric rise of online retail platforms. Thus, there is an urgent need for adaptation to volatility from a pandemic like COVID-19. Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are especially susceptible to pandemic. SMEs do, already employ some coping mechanisms, though there is very little data on the nature and efficacy of these tactics. Therefore, it is still unknown how SMEs can become more resilient to pandemic risk and less vulnerable to it by implementing documented coping strategies that are effective and long-lasting. This paper examines scholarly literature to find proof concerning pandemic risk effects on SMEs, adaptive strategies developed to address these impacts, and the extent to which these strategies strengthen and lessen SMEs’ fragility in India. Several key pandemic risk impacts for SMEs were found in the literature review. Several crucial coping mechanisms were also described in the study. Analysis of the study shows that there is little empirical support for most of the conceptual findings in resilience research among SMEs. Considering the complexity of SMEs, this study recommends further adaptation research aimed at creating fresh approaches to pandemic risk education.