Introduction
Since its emergence in late 2019, the COVID-19 epidemic has caused negative effects on the economies of countries and has had a disastrous impact on human health. The conditions and restrictions imposed in most countries to limit the virus’s spread among people, such as social distancing and quarantines, have led to distortions in the system of supply and demand for goods and slowed many countries’ economies. The repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt across all economic sectors and institutions, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs) (Hasanat et al., 2020).
Studies have shown that SMEs are confronted with various difficulties and challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The period of closure and movement prevention policies adopted by governments in many countries have greatly affected SMEs, paralyzing their operations, weakening their financial positions, and exposing them to financial risk (Omar et al., 2020; Oyewale et al., 2020). SMEs have suffered from a shortage of workers and production inputs because of distortions that marred supply chains, which negatively affected their sales (Gurría, 2020; Segal & Gerstel, 2020) and their ability to fulfill their financial obligations and pay employees’ salaries (Robinson & Kengatharan, 2020). This problem has coincided with a decrease in consumer spending because of the reduction in consumers’ income and widespread feelings of uncertainty (Gurría, 2020).